Naruto Of Iwa
by TimTheeEnchanter
Summary: When information about Naruto's status as a Jinchurriki is leaked, Iwa makes a desperate move. Now under Iwa's tutelage, what awaits the container of the world's most powerful being?
1. Chapter 1

Hello everyone. I would like to give a small thank you for reading this story. This is my first attempt at writing my own fanfiction, so do expect mistakes in grammar and plot holes. If you see any of them, please notify me and I'll fix it as soon as possible. This is the fruits of my labour, and unlike what the bulk of this chapter will tell you, it will be Naruto-centric; even though I think I went overboard on the prologue. Thanks for taking the time to read this pseudo-warning and I hope you enjoy this story.

Kakashi was tired.

Not as in "I need to sleep" tired.

But as in "Why does this shit always happen to me?" tired.

He was so tired, that he wasn't even reading the little orange book that was taking up a pocket in his Jounin vest.

It was blasphemy, and Kakashi knew it.

Kakashi's train of thought was derailed as a kunai whizzed by his ear, nearly taking a chuck of it with the projectile. 'Gotta be more careful Kakashi!' the masked ninja berated himself. 'I just need to find some cover and get away from these guys' Kakashi 's mind was running a mile a minute and he was having trouble keeping up with it. "What was so important about this little guy that those people chased after him for? It's not like they weren't beating the shit outta him." Kakashi studied the small boy in his arms, noting how his clothes were together by a thread, how his entire wardrobe was orange - Orange!- and the multitude of patches that ran along the torn fabric. Finding a possible place to lose his pursuers, Kakashi's mind focused on the mission that the Hokage had given him.

He thought it was going to be a simple mission "Get into the town of Takiyama and assassinate the mayor." The wrinkled bag of flesh - The Hokage - had said. He made it sound so easy, but alas, Kakashi was in no place to think of how this simple B-rank mission - He was late for all the S and A-rank missions - had suddenly turned into a SS-rank mission, all because of a little boy. All he was trying to do was to make sure the small boy and he could get to safety. Ducking into a side alley, he set the small boy down and started the seals for the Summoning Jutsu. The poof of smoke that was customary for such a jutsu faded away and small pug, about 14 inches tall appeared. "Now what do you want with a cute puppy like me Kakashi?" The animal asked. This was one of the special abilities of the nindog summoning contract; they could speak in human tongue. "I want to know if anyone is around us and if there are, you know what to do." Kakashi spat out, almost out of breath from the amount of running he had just done. I'm getting too old for this shit.' was the thought on Kakashi's mind until he caught the finite movement of the young boy's eyelids. "Well at least you're ok; I thought you were dead or something!" Kakashi chirped happily, somehow curving his eye to make a 'U' shape.

There were some theories on how Kakashi did this; some people thought it was a genjutsu; other's thought it was because that was the only part of his face that could actually show emotion, and still others thought it was because his right eye was the only humane part of his body left.

But if you asked him how he did it; he would simply make his patented 'Eye-Smile' and tell you he did it because he could.

"Where am I?" The young boy asked. His disheveled hair almost matched the state Kakashi's was in.

Almost.

"Well, you just so happen to be in Takiyama, on the outskirts of the Tanuki Desert and the border-town for Konoha and Iwa." Kakashi replied, gauging his reaction, and soon afterwards wish he hadn't; as soon as he mentioned Konoha and Iwa, the kid's head whipped around so quickly you could hear the snap. Well, that had to hurt' Kakashi winced, but decided he needed answers, and this boy was going to give them to him. "Hey boy, what's your name?" The masked shinobi inquired. The kid looked up at him, as if debating with himself as to whether or not Kakashi was to be trusted. I promise you, I'm trustworthy." The shinobi prodded, knowing there was not much time until either those pursuers caught up to him, or Pakkun - The little pug - caught something. As if making the decision that Kakashi could be trusted, words were uttered that changed the ninja world forever.

"My name used to be Naze Tobayame; Iwa chunnin - He noticed the tensing of the strange masked ninja - But now I'm Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze, missing-nin."

(A/N: This is what originally got me interested in the whole "What if Naruto somehow lived in Iwa?" line of thought. This has no relevance to the story, but I'm keeping it here as a memento to my brain. Furthermore, since this is an edit of the story there will be pieces missing, so re-reading is imperative, as I have taken some things out and added some things in.)

I don t own Naruto or any characters from the series.

Naruto of Iwa: The Beginning - Chapter 1 Title: It all begins

-Konohagakure-

"Damn, man. Did you really have to create me just to do your _paperwork?_ I mean, I understand why you summoned me, I really do… But what makes you think I don't hate this heresy (One) just as much as you do!"

A young slender man with hair the colour of sunshine looked to his seeming carbon copy. "I don't care if you hate it just as much as I do, you'll do that damn paperwork so I can finish this seal. As you know, the converter seal has to be juxtaposed to the reverse-dampening seal to augment the effect of the control matrix; otherwise it would just blow up as soon as I used it. Not to mention the auto-corrective output control seal that has to be used to alter the null seal to make sure that the damn fox doesn't get out. And then you have the-"

"Fine! I get it! Just get back to work, or nothing's going to be done."

"Glad that you see it my way... For once."

"There would be a problem if I didn't; we are the same person after all."

The man on the floor, obviously concentrating on the seal in front of him, barked out a laugh. "Ain't that the truth?"

The clone knew why the man on the floor was making such a seal. Their wife, as weird as that sounded to the clone, could experience some _complications _while giving birth to their baby, and that would most assuredly be _bad_. The men understood the importance of being prepared in such a situation, however morbid it seemed.

About the time that the banter stopped, a loud banging could be heard from the door to the room they were in. "Come in." The man on the floor ordered. In came a young man, with a stack of papers in his hands, which was topped by an envelope.

"Uhh, Hokage-sama, these are for you."

Placing the stack down on the neatly organized wooden desk, the young man saluted. "You may leave, Osaku-san." The clone at the table said. After the man exited the room, the man on floor stood up, stretching from side to side, loosening his undoubtedly stiff muscles. He sent a look to the clone, which looked at the man apprehensively.

"Hey, when do we clones get to order people around, huh?" Looking down at the seal he just finished, the man sighed.

"I'm going to get some lunch, I'll be back later. If anyone comes in, you're the Hokage, got it?"

"Yessir!"

With a flash of yellow, the man was gone.

-Ichiraku's Ramen Emporium-

"Hey there, Minato! The usual right?" Ever vigilant for his second best customer and fellow ninja, Teuchi smiled largely. He knew ever since the Academy that Minato had been something special, no matter how bitter he was about it when he was still a fresh chunin instructor. He even remembered getting beaten a few times by the man in front of him when he wasn't even a teenager.

"Yes, Teuchi- Sensei! And could you get one to go as well? Kushi will probably smell the ramen off of me and pout that I didn't get her any when I check up on her." Teuchi laughed heartily, his mirth spreading to Minato who started chuckling as well.

"Well, when you say one…"

"I mean ten, yes. You would think she would crave weird things, but noooo, all she wants is ramen. Sometimes I wish I didn't have to come here every day. No offense, but having ramen for a meal out of two every day can start to become… redundant."

Teuchi looked back from his pots. "None taken, I sometimes get tired of making the stuff."

Teuchi set a bowl of ramen in front of Minato. "You know, when you two have your kid, if it's anything like both of you, I'm going to die a very rich man."

They both chuckled at the joke. "If I had my way, this would be a maybe once a week thing, but we both know that Kushi and the baby would sneak in some whether I wanted them to or not." Teuchi looked at Minato for a moment then put a finger up to his mouth, causing Minato to give him a sour look.

"You wouldn't even tell your Hokage what his wife was doing to make her and our child smell like ramen?" Seeing the chef shake his head, Minato sighed and dropped his head onto the counter. "What would get you to tell me?" He looked up only to see Teuchi placing another bowl of ramen in front of him. 'Oh.' "I get it, you sly dog you. By the way, how're things with little Ayame and Setsuka?"

Teuchi looked up from the ramen he was cooking for the people who had wondered in seeing their Hokage. "Ayame's doing fine, she a bundle of energy no doubt, but Setsuka's done well in making sure she doesn't cause too much havoc, but Setsuka's been feeling faint as of late, we're worried she might be coming down with something."

Minato looked thoughtful for a moment "I hope she starts feeling better soon. Are you almost done with Kushi's order?" He got a harsh glare from Teuchi 'Oh right, we're secretly dating' "Not that I'm going to _see_ her or anything, it's just that she comes around the same time I do and-"

"Stop Minato. Stop. I got the order right here. I hear she's busy right now, so I'll just leave it in the back when she gets here in five minutes…"

Minato nodded his head and dumped a slightly larger-than-it-should-have-been bundle of bills. "Thanks Teuchi-Sensei. You're a lifesaver." He turned to start walking, but stopped after a few steps. "Hey Teuchi? I heard some talk recently that you've been trying out making different food items…Is this true?"

Teuchi nodded his head. "I've been trying to make Yakisoba and Gyouza, but my recipes aren't coming out how I thought they would, so I'm still in the development stage. Why?"

Minato only chuckled "Gyouza are my favorite food Sensei, I might come here more often if you started selling them!" Minato started to walk off, making a lazy circle to the back where he was handed the order Teuchi had boxed up for him. He couldn't help but notice how Teuchi had a far-off look in his eyes, where he could vaguely see the sign of money rolling on a wheel.

With another flash of yellow, Minato was gone.

XxX

"Miiiinaaaaatooooo…"

"Yes, honey, I have the ramen right here!"

"Oh good, but I wasn't mad about that. Is it normal to have water running down your leg when you're pregnant?"

"How would I know…? SHIT! Honey! Grab anything you wanna take with you! I think it's _time_!"

"This soon? Tsunade said that it would be at least a few more days!"

"Well it's not, have you had cramping in your groin area?"

"I wouldn't call it cramping, but it's pretty unpleasant, why?"

"Because we're leaving."

"Waaaahh!"

Another flash of yellow.

Neither of them noticed the small moth disappear in a puff of smoke as they left.

XxX

There are many myths surrounding the geology of the Land of Fire, and many of them have some semblance of truth. For instance, the grove that Minato had taken Kushina to that was on the Northern border of the Land of Fire was said to be the Senju's ancestral stomping grounds, long before the times in which Ninja clans vied for dominance.

While the legends surrounding these lands brought a great deal of traffic in the form of tourism, the small part of the large forest that Minato had to was nigh untouchable. Minato himself had only stumbled upon this place by accident some years ago, on his quest to find a place to train alone. He only recently remembered about this place when the need for such a secluded area was prominent.

"Okay, honey. I'm going to get Tsunade to help us out, okay? I'll be back faster than you can say "If you don't get back here in five minutes I'll kick your ass all the way the Suna!" And then he was gone. Kushina sat there, in the middle of the small clearing.

It was a few moments until she heard some rustling in the bushes surrounding the area. Perking up, she grabbed the senbon that she used to keep her hair in place. "Show yourself!"

"Oh, you seem feisty, just like the information said… But I wonder…. Is it because of your tenant?" The voice which was distinctly male seemed to be coming from everywhere, unsettling Kushina. Directly in front of her, however, a small vortex of…. She supposed it was some foreign energy source, since she couldn't sense any chakra from it began to appear, and after another moment, a tall man in a black cloak and a mask was in front of her. Wasting no time, Kushina threw the senbon at the man, watching in awe and horror as it passed right through him.

"You know a lot… Too bad you'll die here."

"Do you truly believe you can defeat me? I'm many leagues above of you in skill girl, as you can see."

Kushina smirked "It's not about what abilities you have; it's about what you can do with them." Kushina sent her killing intent full blast at the man, but if it had any affect, she didn't see it. Immediately after using her killing intent, chains burst from the ground and surrounded the cloaked man, crushing him into oblivion. The man soon turned into a log, which was crushed into small chips.

"Whoa, that was scary. I think you might've actually hurt me if you hit with that. But I'm not here for you; I'm here for your tenant." Kushina whipped around to face the man. 'How did he get behind me?' Unfortunately, the man seemed to be finishing up a chain of hand signs, and he shoved a slightly glowing fist into Kushina's stomach.

-Kushina's Mindscape-

'What? Why are we here?' Kushina looked around. Surrounding her was the large forest that she knew the Kyuubi liked to inhabit. 'Where's that man?' Looking around the clearing that she was in, she saw nothing.

"Of course you don't see me, why would I want you to? Now where's that infernal beast…"

"Whatever you're doing, it won't work! There's no way the Kyuubi can escape this seal!"

"Of course little girl, I know that. This is why you're going to destroy the seal for me." The forests around Kushina started to shake and rumble, and she knew that only meant one thing.

"**Ahhh, so you've returned… No doubt in need of my assistance hmm? Wait… Something's different about you." ** The temperature surrounding the Kyuubi dropped dozens of degrees. "**Uchiha.**" The amount of malice and hatred in that single word disturbed Kushina, she had never seen the Kyuubi this angry before. Directly in front of Kushina, the masked man appeared.

"Kyuubi, we meet again. How about we actually destroy what we were supposed to destroy…unlike last time. Now, to get you out of this blasted seal." Within moments a large temple door appeared, easily dwarfing the Kyuubi in size. All along this door were runes inscribed onto the surface. About six feet above the bottom of the door however, was a small latch. The man walked up to the latched, and grabbed it, only to be blasted away several feet.

"Seems I can't do it myself. Girl, you know what to do."

Kushina started to walk forward. "What are you doing to me, you monster!" The man started to laugh.

"Ha! Foolish girl, thinking that I'm the monster here! I'm doing this out of the kindness of my heart. The world has gotten too peaceful, so peaceful that childhood ideals hold more value that cold hard facts. Tell me girl, do you know who I am?

Kushina, still walking forward, took a small moment to assess her situation. "I need to break whatever this man has put on me… Kyuubi said he was an Uchiha. Maybe this is a genjutsu!" Channeling chakra throughout her body, Kushina pulsed the chakra gathered outward, trying to break the supposed genjutsu. She stopped for a moment, only to begin walking towards the door again after a minute or so.

"Try harder, little girl. It isn't so easy to break a _true _Uchiha's genjutsu." Kushina's looked around for a moment trying to figure out a way to defeat this man, when she laid her eyes on the Kyuubi, who had so far been silent. 'Kyuubi! I need some of your chakra! Quickly! We mustn't let this man do what he wants!"

The Kyuubi looked down at the woman who yelled his name. He had been far too lost in thought when he saw those eyes again. The eyes he loathed with all of his being. They were too powerful for mere mortals, who wouldn't understand their significance. Looking from the woman to that man, the Kyuubi spoke.

"**No."**

"Hah! Evidently, this fox already knows to obey his masters! I see you've learned since the last time we were near each other." The Kyuubi did nothing but growl, baring his teeth angrily at the cloaked man.

Kushina was stunned. "WHY?" Still she walked forward, and after a few moments and no reply, she grabbed the latch and pulled. There was a sucking sound for a few seconds until both the Kyuubi and Kushina fell to the ground. The masked man walked over to the Kyuubi, who was eyeing him with hatred even Kushina had never seen from the beast.

"I must thank you girl, if you weren't so unsure of yourself, this would've been much more difficult to do. I might've actually had to beat you down first; break your spirit. But no matter, what's done is done. Now-" The masked man jumped onto the Kyuubi's foreleg and ran up it until he reached the head. "-I think it's time for a little destruction, don't you… Kyuubi?" He began a long series of seals, and time seemed to slow down for Kushina, until everything went white and a roar ripped through the silence.

"Thank you, little girl. When I'm finished with what I want to do, I'll build a monument in your name as the 'bringer of peace'." And with that final comment, the masked man disappeared in a swirl of that same weird energy.

"Honey, I'm back, and I brought along Tsunade and Shizune. Hope you didn't-SHIT SHIT SHIT!" Minato was next to his wife in less than a blink, cradling her in his arms. Tsunade took just half a second longer, but as soon as she knelt down, her hands were covered in green chakra in the middle of a diagnostic jutsu. "Her heart rates through the roof…her blood pressure's spiking… her body has gone into an emergency state and it's starting to squeeze out the baby before its ready. It seems she fell unconscious from whatever caused this, but she's already at seven centimeters. I'll try my best, but there's a possibility she…" Tsunade looked away. "She might not make it."

Looking back up at Minato, Tsunade got her answer. "Shizune, I need you to-" She was cut short by the noise of an explosion. Then _it_ hit. That chakra, she had never felt anything like it. It was taking more focus than she had on reserve to even think among this mess of evil intent. Minato seemed to be faring only slightly better. After a few moments, they both got used to the feeling, and perked up. Minato stood up.

"Look after Kushi for me." In a flash of yellow he was gone.

XxX

Minato feared the worst 'What if it was the Kyuubi?' Looking up from his position, he noticed that something was off. _Very off_.

"How did you get out here…?"

XxX

It was a peaceful afternoon in Konohagakure, the peddler and merchants on the streets were selling their wares, and the shoppers were haggling for prices. Off-duty ninja were doing various deeds as well, effectively blending into the populace, but they were distinguishable by the headband they wore at all times.

Around four in the afternoon a large shadow took over most of Konoha. Those who were aware that it was nowhere near dusk looked up.

"Kyu…Kyuu.. KYUUBI!"

Everyone froze.

Rising higher than the Hokage's monument itself, the Kyuubi gazed at its surroundings, before bringing up one of its massive paws and crashing it down upon the gate that reached to its knees. The gate buckled for a split-second, bending under the intense pressure it was experiencing, before a crack sounded throughout the area.

The noise swept throughout Konoha, sending shivers up everyone's spine. Then _It_ hit. Many civilians fainted or even died on the spot from the intense pressure that suddenly welled up in their chests. The ninja, especially those who were acquainted with bloodlust, held a much better reaction, although they too were stunned for many moments.

"**I can finally destroy this inept village-!"** Kyuubi only managed a small sentence before he felt something _snap_. His head lowered for a few moments, and when he looked back up, his regular blood red slitted eyes were replaced with the tomoe of the sharingan. He took another look at his surroundings before he began to indiscriminately destroy everything in front of him, taking down swaths of building with each swipe of his paws.

Many of the ninja stood their ground, their loyalty to the village overriding their survival instincts, and as they sent out their jutsus hoping to slow the beast down, were destroyed along with the buildings. Many ninja had gathered together to form platoons, and they had a decent success rate considering that they had managed to keep the beast from coming too far into the village, stopping it at the market district. Just when things looked too bleak, the ninja who had survived for the few minutes the beast had appeared for were welcomed to a rare sight.

"We mustn't let the Kyuubi reach further into the village! We shall stop it here with our will of fire! If we unite, even the Kyuubi will not prevail!" Followed by a contingent of ANBU, the Sandaime Hokage appeared at the frontline of battle.

"Lord Hokage, we need a plan! We cannot hope to destroy this beast with pure force!"

The Sandaime looked at the man who spoke; when he saw his face he remembered a name "Izu, go find Nara Shikaku, and tell him to activate battle plan K-2." Izu's face contorted into confusion, but he saluted anyway, and by the next moment, he was gone.

The Sandaime looked back up at the Kyuubi, who had just finished tearing through one of the high-rise apartment complexes that had been built for the more wealthy citizens of Konoha. Looking up at the sky, which was black with smoke from the still young fires, the Sandaime yelled to the heavens "ATTACK!"

XxX

Nara Shikaku was a smart man by any means. He was even considered a genius among his clansmen, whose average IQ was 176. With the brainpower he possessed, it was simple deduction to know what the Hokage wanted from him. Turning to Izu, the messenger, he spoke his command. "I need you to tell Chouza Akimichi, and Inoichi Yamanaka to meet me at the Hokage's tower in two minutes. You can find them in the village bunker helping civilians from their clan get to safety." Shikaku then started on his way to the tower. "I hope the Yondaime knows what he's doing. Now, how to stall the Kyuubi…"

Two minutes later, all three men were at the tower, one of them was holding a scroll. "You sure I just place it on his head? Won't it fall off or anything?"

"No, it won't fall off Inoichi, just put it on the Sandaime's head, and then get to us. We'll need you for the group assault." With those words, the three men sped off, two in one direction and the last in another.

"Say, Shikaku, are you sure this'll work? I mean, I like the plan and all, but what if the Kyuubi's a more proficient grappler than what he appears to be?"

"Don't worry Chouza, that's where I come in. You get the first hit in by surprise, and then I'll help you with the rest okay?"

"Fine Shika."

It took the pair a few moments until they came upon the scene that surprised them. It seemed that the Sandaime wanted to have a little fun in the latter half of his life, if the amount of fireballs he was hurling at the Kyuubi accounted for anything. Shunshin over to the former Hokage, the duo bowed.

"Lord Hokage, I have a plan. How many Nara do you think are here?"

The Sandaime took only a split-second to answer. " Approximately 43, give or take two every time the damn Kyuubi swipes its paws. Whatever you want to do, go do it quickly!"

Nodding, Chouza dashed onto the ground before the Kyuubi. Running towards the beast, he began a series of hand seals. Without even saying its name, the man grew in size until he was on par with the Kyuubi itself. Kyuubi, despite seeing this trick several times before, was not prepared for the speed or rate at which the man grew, and was tossed hundreds of feet backwards as Chouza body checked the nine-tailed fox back to the outer wall of the village.

"Shika! I think it's time for you to do whatever it is you thought of!" The gargantuan man stood at the ready, knowing full well that he had gained the beasts ire. It did not take long for the fox to dash back at the Akimichi, who dodged it adroitly, despite his size.

"Don't worry buddy, I only need a minute or two until I have everything I need. Think you can hold up?" Shikaku yelled back at his friend.

Chouza smiled "Of course I do." The Kyuubi turned on its heel and rushed Chouza again, but this time he was ready for a counterattack. Ducking underneath the initial swipe of the fox's paw, Chouza hefted the Kyuubi onto his shoulder and threw. The Kyuubi blocked out the sun for a moment, drenching everyone in shade as they looked at what was the de facto natural disaster being _thrown_. Chouza did not go unharmed however, he was grasping his right shoulder, where one of the Kyuubi's tails had nicked a shallow gash. "Shit, that smarts. I might have to ramp this up." Grabbing a small pouch from his pocket while the fox was still skidding across the ground, he popped out a small yellow ball. 'This increases my chakra output by five times, I shouldn't need much more than that for a distraction.' Swallowing the pill, a small set of wings, comparable to what can be seen on a mantis appeared. Chouza then charged towards the still recovering Kyuubi. When he was approximately a hundred feet away from the beast, Chouza jumped into the air, and positioned his body towards the Kyuubi, his elbow leading the dive. Kyuubi had no time to react as the Akimichi once again body checked the fox, but this time the fox howled in what seemed to be pain, until Chouza skidded back a few dozen feet. Kyuubi seemed unfazed however, and continued rushing towards the biggest threat.

"Chouza, get ready!" Chouza knew exactly who that was. 'Finally Inoichi, you decide to help out'

'It's not my fault I can't leap the village if I wanted to.'

'Anyway, get what you need done, I'll make sure he doesn't get too far away.'

'That's what we Nara are for Chouza. I took the liberty of grabbing a few of your clansmen for a little "shock and awe" let's say. On my mark, ready? MARK!'

Kyuubi was sure that he should've been closer to the man in front of him, but it didn't seem he was moving. Looking down, the fox noticed that shadows were entwined around his limbs and tails. Following the shadow trail granted the Kyuubi with a very ominous sight; nearly two dozen men nearly the same size as Chouza were charging at him, and he couldn't get away. When they were within his tails range, he tried in vain to swipe them away, but those damn shadows were holding him back. When they got within range of his paws, he knew that he would legitimately feel pain in a few moments. The fact that knew it was coming didn't help as he felt the shadows release him at a point where he couldn't react in time to stop them from attacking. The first man gave the Kyuubi an uppercut that dazed the fox, while a second one swept his legs from under him. In the span of a second, the Kyuubi had been hit easily a few dozen times. They were not finished however, as nine of them grabbed one of his tail and threw him nearly thirty feet into the air, where the largest of them all, Chouza was waiting. Kyuubi tried to swipe at the man with his tails and paws, but the Akimichi grabbed Kyuubi at the base of his tails, where he could only do superficial damage at most. With a great heave and a shout of "TAKE THIS!" The Kyuubi was thrown to the ground with unparalleled force. The ground shook for nearly a minute as the dust settled.

While a bit shaken and definitely smarting, the Kyuubi was still fine. He was about to show these worthless mortals why you don't mess with superior beings when he felt _him._ He couldn't see him, but he could _feel_ him. The man he was supposed to annihilate before all others. Using the dust to his advantage, the Kyuubi began to gather chakra in front of his snout. After a few moments, he compressed the chakra and ate it. Keeping it in his throat, he roared. The ball of super-dense chakra sped towards where he felt the man was, but he didn't hear the accompanied cacophony of an explosion until several seconds later.

After the dust cleared, he noticed that all the large men had retreated, obviously due to the concentration of chakra. Looking to where the destruction should be, he saw nothing. There was nothing to even denote that the Kyuubi had just set a tailed beast bomb in that direction.

XxX

"How did you get out here…?" Minato was confused, but he could think later. Right now, he needed to save his village. He noticed that the Kyuubi was doing something that required a _lot_ of chakra. Looking through his kunai, he settled for the right distance. "One kilometer should be right. Now then Kyuubi, what do you have in store?" Setting the tri-pronged kunai in front of him, he channeled chakra into the seal paper wrapped around it. He didn't have to wait long for a ball of super-condensed chakra the size of the academy to come barreling towards him. Minato's face was stone, but his mind was surprised at just how much chakra that one ball possessed. 'Unbelievable… The Kyuubi truly is Annihilation Incarnate.' The great ball came closer and closer to the Hokage's monument and the Hokage on it, but Minato did not move.

Just before it seemed everything would be lost, both the mountain and the Yondaime, the ball stopped. Just _stopped_. It was quickly surrounded by strands of blue runes that continually leeched chakra through a small hole in front of Minato. After a few seconds, the entire ball had been leeched, and even though he couldn't see it, Minato knew that a kilometer behind him, the ball had appeared and sped off into the forest. The explosion a second or so afterward only confirmed his thoughts. Grabbing the scroll on the ground and stuffing it into his pocket, Minato grabbed some more kunai. "I think we should get some alone time, right Kyuubi?"

"Oh no, I think _we_ should have some alone time, Yondaime Hokage." Minato swiftly turned around, and felt a hand grip his shoulder. "You're my opponent Yondaime Hokage, and you've already lost." A vortex of strange energy began pulling Minato in, but Minato quickly focused on one of the chakra markers he left particularly far away from the village and in an instant, he was gone. "Hmm… This might be interesting."

XxX

In the Land of Forests, a large man, easily reaching over six feet tall, with white hair was drinking tea in one of tea shops along the border with the Land of Fire. Setting his teacup down, he stared off into space. "I wonder what Minato's doing..." He looked back down to grab his teacup and noticed that it was cracked. Being a superstitious person, Jiraiya was worried. Putting down a small wad of bills, he rushed off in the direction he knew Konoha to be.

XxX

"Uhn…" Minato rolled across the ground of his personal training area. He was given it when he gained the status of Hokage, which seemed like forever ago, but he was sure it had only been a few years at the most. 'That's definitely space-time jutsu he's using. I have to be careful.' Minato stood up, and faced where he knew the fox was at the moment.

"I suggest you focus entirely on one thing, Yondaime Hokage. It may be fatal otherwise." Turning around Minato threw a regular kunai at the source of the voice, which caught it between his fingers. "That was my freebie, now I won't hesitate to kill you if you slip up." Minato readied himself, waiting for the attack, but it seemed that his opponent was doing the same.

As though on cue, they both charged at each other, intending on fatal blows. The masked man drew chains from his sleeves as he dashed forward, intending on ripping the Yondaime apart. Minato drew another tri-pronged kunai from his pouch, and threw it at the man. Minato smiled slightly as he noticed the masked man keep charging forward, and by the next moment, Minato had a Rasengan in his hand, ready to use it to protect his village. The cloaked figure noticed, and barked out a laugh while he was dashing forwards.

"That won't work on me, Yondaime Hokage-" The kunai slipped through the man mask, and exited without leaving a hole. "I am invici-gurk!" With a flash of yellow, Minato had teleported to a spot slightly above the kunai and thrusted the spiraling sphere into the masked man, crushing him into the ground. When the dust settled the moment after, the masked man was nowhere to be seen. There was a lull in action and Minato took this moment to sneak a glance back at his village.

"The fox is certainly causing more destruction than last time I summoned it. The Kyuubi's a work of art, isn't it? Such a beautiful creature, but it's also the ultimate apocalypse. Such irony." The man appeared on the other side of the clearing and laughed. Something clicked in Minato's head after that sentence though. 'He has the Sharingan, he knows time-space jutsu, and not only does he know about the Kyuubi, but he said he's summoned it before…'

"Are you Uchiha Madara?"

The man only laughed again. "You can call me that…Yes, I'm Uchiha Madara." Minato smiled.

"Great, I've been meaning to go all out on somebody for a while now."

What followed next what a taijutsu extraordinaire's wet dream (Two). Minato dashed forwards, stopping right before he was in Madara's range, and turned on his heel, performing a roundhouse kick, which Madara blacked easily with a reinforced forearm. Madara then retaliated by grabbing the leg that he had blocked and spun Minato around, throwing him to the other side of the clearing. Minato rolled several times before coming to a standing position. Madara pushed his advantage, kneeing the Hokage in the chest as he rose up to meet him, flinging him back even further. Minato soon turned into a log, and Madara had to flip backwards over the blonde man who had appeared behind him. "A smokeless Kawarimi…good." Madara had no more time to speak however as Minato began an offensive. He would turn one way, only to jerk back and land a hit on the masked man. Madara was finding it very annoying on getting a proper counter to the man's jerky movements. However, Madara did not need to rely on countering, he could simply make Minato's attacks phase out of him, making it seem as if the fists and other various appendages were simply going _through_ him instead of hitting him. "You're… Pretty hard to… Hit." Minato was breathing somewhat heavily, that last portion of the fight took quite a bit of stamina to do, and he wasn't exactly warmed up, either.

They both stood at opposite ends of the clearing, and with the cue of a bird flying off into the distance, they charged each other. There were no dirty tricks or tactical maneuvres; both men grappled on to the other and pushed off, sliding across the ground several feet. Both Minato and Madara seemed worse for wear, but Minato was definitely sporting more wounds than Madara. Minato threw two more tri-pronged kunai at Madara, but they were off-center; Madara didn't even have to move to dodge them.

"It's seems you're a little punch drunk, Yondaime. Those were poor tosses, even for an academy student."

"They were right on point."

"Then you're obviously more injured then-!" Madara turned his head around, and instead of there being two kunai, there was one, and another Minato had appeared. Minato currently had his hand in Madara's back, where many kanji began to form, and then two large kanji appeared; one for "Tether" and another for "Break". "N-No… A contract breaking seal!" "And a little something to keep you from using that space-time jutsu of yours!" The clone chirped happily. Madara turned back to the original Minato.

"When?" This time Minato laughed. "That clone? He's been around for hours. I think he just noticed something was wrong." Madara stood stock still. "We'll see each other soon… Minato Namikaze." Madara took advantage of the slight shock that Minato received from the man knowing his name to kick his leg out faster than the eye could blink, effectively dispelling the clone and then sunk into the ground. Minato rushed over to the descending ninja, intent on kicking the head clean off of his shoulders. As soon as he was close, Minato kicked out, but he only met air, causing him to over-extend and end up in a heap on the ground. "Ow… I think I might've pulled something there." He stood up, brushing the dust and dirt off of his clothes.

"Well, time for the finale."

XxX

The Kyuubi looked back at the gathering of the insolent little maggots who- the fox experienced that same feeling again, and this time, his eyes returned to their normal slitted form. Forgetting for a second where exactly he was, Kyuubi sniffed around. It smelt like trees, which could only mean one thing: Konohagakure; Kushina's home. He roared into the air so harshly that it shook trees for dozens of meters around. **"FINALLY, I'M FREE TO TURN YOU AND YOUR PATHETIC VILLAGE INTO DUST UZUMAKI! SUFFER LIKE I HAVE!" **And with a great heave, the Kyuubi charged forward, but this time he was much faster. He was so fast that most of the ninja present were taken by surprise, and they paid the price with their lives. The Akimichis who were previously pummeling the Kyuubi were grabbed by much more agile tails and thrown hundreds of feet away. Chouza responded quickly enough to dodge the tail the tried to grab him, only to get the sharp end of a paw that dug into his already wounded shoulder.

"If we have anything left, we should do it now!" Chouza then started to grapple with the Kyuubi again, but this time it was much easier to tell that the Kyuubi had the advantage.

'Okay, I'll contact everyone and tell them to ready their strongest jutsu, and then attack on Hokage's mark.'

'Inoichi, thanks, I'll try to keep this damn thing… uhn… busy while you get…Gah...set up.'

Chouza was able to keep a hold on the Kyuubi for several more seconds until the fox used its tails to wrap around the man and throw him into the forest surrounding them. By luck, there was another Akimichi in that area that was able to catch him, but only barely. Chouza stood up and quickly yelled out to his clansmen. "All at once! Go!" With a yell, all of the remaining Akimichis charged towards the Kyuubi, who managed to sidestep and few and cut another one or two down. It was a valiant but futile effort as the Kyuubi was thrown to the ground in a cloud of dust and debris. They were able to keep the fox like this for almost minute, which was enough time for whatever Inoichi had planned as he contacted his old friend.

'Chouza, when I tell you, yell out to your clansmen to make the Kyuubi stand up.' Switching to another target, Inoichi started another conversation. 'Lord Hokage, you may start at any time.'

'Thank you Inoichi...' Activating the only jutsu he knew would work with this mental connection (3), he made his order. 'NINJA OF KONOHA! GIVE IT YOUR BEST SHOT!' Inoichi quickly changed his target again. 'MARK!'

Chouza knew a signal when he heard one. "Everyone, bring the Kyuubi to bear, let's show this bastard fox what he gets for messing with us!" The other Akimichis didn't need to be told twice as they all brought the Kyuubi to its hind legs just as what seemed like thousands of jutsu flooding the field of vision before them. Dragons of every element along with fireballs coalesced into a veritable wall of death. Waiting until the last possible moment, the Akimichis finally let go of the nine-tails. The Justus hit.

They hit _hard._

The Kyuubi took the brunt of the attack, rearing his head as he roared as he was thrown back by the sheer force of the combined jutsus. He wasn't out of the woods yet, because as he was being thrown back, he looked into the sky to see that something large was blocking out the sun. He soon knew very well what it was as Gamabunta, the largest and most powerful toad summon, drop kicked the Kyuubi into the ground. Grabbing the fox's head with his webbed feet, Gamabunta spoke. "Do what you need to, Minato! I can't keep him here like this forever." With a flash, Minato appeared on the Kyuubi's head, and then began gathering chakra. A faint yellow glow surrounded him and the next second neither he nor the Kyuubi were anywhere to be seen.

XxX

"It's a boy." Tsunade looked down at the new mother. Kushina was pale, _too _pale. "Kushina, you want to hold him?" Bringing the newborn to its mother, she stepped back as Kushina took the boy in her arms.

"A…Boy huh? Then he will be called Naruto, just like planned. Aren't you a little cutie, Naruto?" Kushina started to rub the child's cheeks, which had whisker marks on it which the infant seemed to react with giggles whenever her fingers brushed over them. After this tender moment, Kushina started to cough harshly, droplets of blood splattering the ground and Naruto's face. A flash of yellow from her peripheral drew her attention from her child. Turning her head, she stared into the delphinium blue eyes of the man she loved. "Minato…It's a boy. Naruto's a good name for a boy."

Minato smiled. "Honey, I need Naruto for a moment." He reached for the child, but met some resistance from Kushina. "Honey! You know what needs to be done. I made a seal for this specific purpose, you know that!" Kushina just shook her head. Behind him, looming in the distance what the gargantuan shape of the Kyuubi, the fox's red fur a contrast to the deep green surrounding them.

"I won't let you make Naruto live the same life I did! I won't! I won't! I…" Kushina began sobbing. "Not anymore, I don't anyone to live the life I did, no one more than my son." Kushina tried to stand up, but her shaky legs couldn't support her, and she began to fall, but Minato caught her and laid her down. Kushina could see that the Kyuubi had finally gained some spatial awareness and was looking at them. Kushina looked down at her child, her tears falling onto the infant's face and mixing with the blood. "…Be safe Naruto, eat your vegetables, treat your friends safely and serve them loyally, and meet a really nice girl and have cute Uzumaki children... I love you, son."

She fell asleep on the spot.

Tsunade ran over, intent on checking Kushina while Minato grabbed the child. They glanced at each other, their eyes locking for a moment, and in that moment, Minato realized what he was just about to do. Looking at Tsunade, he spoke. "If I don't make it, tell Lord Sandaime that I wish my child be known as a hero, for being the one to contain the Kyuubi." Tsunade looked at him warily, before nodding. Minato stood up, his child in his arms, and turned around to face the Kyuubi.

"Let's finish this."

"**MINATO!"**

With a flash of yellow, Minato appeared on the Kyuubi's head. Securing his position by sticking with chakra, he started to reach into his cloak. He pulled out a scroll approximately a foot in length. Unfurling the scroll, he cut the first two feet off, and then placed it over his child. Focusing some chakra into the paper, he watched as kanji spread across Naruto's body, all the while his son was shivering as though he was really cold. After a few moments the kanji stopped and Naruto was covered head to toe in small kanji in directional lines surrounding a larger kanji for "Contain" which was adjacent to the kanji for each element in a pentagonal pattern. Unraveling the scroll further, he proceeded to cut off another ten feet of the scroll, and began to start a long series of seals, his child still in his arms.

Kyuubi however, was trashing about, hoping to get Minato to stumble or fall so that he could attack him without worry of self-injury. When he figured out that that didn't work, he began to run towards the nearest source of water he knew of. The Valley of The End.

Minato noticed that they were leaving the general area that Konoha was in, but he didn't have much time or focus to question it. After about two minutes of forming seals, he was finished with the jutsu. Looking around him, he was surprised to see that they at the Valley of the End.

"A fitting end for you Kyuubi. The last time you are sealed is at the same place you were first sealed."

The Kyuubi heard this and stopped his movements. "**You intend to seal me? You know that I'll just escape, no seal mortal kind has ever made could contain me!"** After he finished speaking though, the temperature around them dropped several dozen degrees. Kyuubi himself had never felt like this, and for all intents and purposes, he was starting to get nervous. He started to run towards the lake he remembered being around here somewhere when he noticed he couldn't move. Then something started to _pull_. He looked up to see what was happening, only to come across a sight he wished he would never see again. The Shinigami. "**YOU FOOL! MINATO, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? HE'LL TAKE BOTH OF US!**" He heard Minato laugh weakly on top of his head.

"Who said he was taking you? You'll have… To live one… Last life…" Minato coughed harshly as the Shinigami sent his other hand to where the Kyuubi knew Minato to be, and a small burst of light came forth from above the Kyuubi's head. "Kyuubi... Treat my son well, and if he needs it, teach him the way of the ninja-"

The Kyuubi had no time to respond as a great light surrounded the three of them. It was gone as quickly as it came, and all that was left, was a small crying infant in the arms of his father.

XxX

Hiruzen Sarutobi may have been past his prime, but when he saw the smoke-filled sky with bright, white light he knew something was off. Pinpointing the source of the light, he signaled the ANBU around him to follow.

Nearly half an hour later, Hiruzen came across a sight he had never at any point of his relatively brief retirement had thought could happen. There, on the bank at the mouth of the waterfall of the Valley of the End (4) was the body of the Yondaime Hokage, and what seemed to be a dead baby. Walking over to the pair, Hiruzen knelt down to examine Minato's corpse. Checking for a pulse gave him the answer he dreaded. Next he picked up the baby who was in the Fourth's arms. It started to squirm, surprising Hiruzen, but he quickly made the connection. "So... You're a boy, and if I remember correctly, they planned on Naruto being your name if you were a boy. So…" Hiruzen looked around at the overthrown trees and boulders that the Kyuubi had managed to dislodge in his brief visit here. "Allow me to welcome you to the world of shinobi, Naruto."

XxX

Another half an hour signaled the return of the Third Hokage, complete with a body bag for the Yondaime, and the infant Naruto in his arms. As he made his way to the morgue to drop off the body (5), he noticed that repairs had already begun in the parts hit softest by the Kyuubi, which weren't many, but it was a good sign meaning that the Kyuubi didn't have much time to rampage. Strangely enough, most of those who were helping out were Uchiha. He hadn't seen many of them at the site of the attack. He would have to ask Fugaku what happened next time they met at council. Turning the corner to the street that the morgue was on, which happily enough wasn't touched by the Kyuubi, he bumped into someone he hadn't seen in years.

"Sarutobi-sensei, fancy meeting you here." She adjusted her head to see what was behind him. It took a moment, but she understood. Hiruzen could see what was about to happen, he grabbed a hold of Tsunade and shunshined them both to his office. Letting go of her, he quickly shunshined back just as he heard a shout of "Hey sensei-!"

When Hiruzen returned, he continued walking as if nothing happened. The ANBU merely followed after, like the trained beasts they were meant to emulate.

After he finished his business of making sure that the Yondaime's body was cremated and stored in the secret vault underneath the morgue, he returned to his office through the use of another shunshin, intent on soothing his student before getting to the inevitable council meetings that would no doubt be knocking on his door.

"We both loved like them children, and sometimes this happens, the best we can do is to remember them Hime. Remember them at their best and their worst; they wouldn't want it any other way." Jiraiya, while not the smoothest of talkers, had seemingly been able to calm Tsunade down without him interfering. 'Unlike when they were on a team together…'

"Jiraiya, I see you decided to come back to Konoha. I suspect you have your reasons?"

The white haired man nodded, and swept his arm across the room."These are my reasons old man… The worst came to be, didn't it?" At the Sandaime's silent nod, Jiraiya continued. "Let me see the child." From the shadows of the room, an ANBU agent appeared, holding a small bundle of cloth in his hands which everyone recognized. "So Minato really had to use the Shiki Fuin, huh?" Taking the child into his arms, he channeled a minute amount of chakra into Naruto, noting how the seal appeared. Over the next hour Jiraiya proceeded to check the seal to the best of his ability, making sure as to not disrupt the seal in any way.

"Minato was always the perfectionist; there's nothing wrong with it from what I could tell, but I'll be coming by every few years or so to make adjustments and such when they are needed. Now… If this is it, there are places we need to be." Smiling at the confused heads that looked at him, he continued. "Sandaime here has to go to a meeting, and you Tsunade have to get to the hospital." When Tsunade asked him where he was going to be, Jiraiya smiled wryly. "Doing some research of course!"

XxX

HIruzen sighed for what seemed like the tenth time that minute. He looked across to room to the platform on which to Advisor of the Mercantile Business League was currently relaying the gains and losses of the last fiscal quarter. He knew that this was just formality; he didn't have time to run the ins and outs of Konoha's business when he was Hokage, and what with the destruction that the Kyuubi caused, he most definitely wouldn't be able to do so this time. So, while he waited until the moment when the meeting finally came to the elephant in the room, the Sandaime could do nothing but watch as the monotonous meeting continued on.

"Hokage-sama… Hokage-sama… Hiruzen!" Hiruzen woke up with a start, to see that both of his advisors and former teammate were at his sides, obviously trying to wake him up. He looked to his right to see Koratsu bending near his head. The Hokage straightened out in his chair.

"Ahem… Thank you for waking me, I assume that everything that has been so far will be on a report that I will receive soon?" Seeing a nod from the scribe that they had hired for these meetings, Hiruzen continued. "Now, I'm sure you woke me up so we can discuss the real issue here. A damage report please." At this, the Advisor of the Mercantile Business League stood up.

"Lord Hokage, we have experienced acute destruction of both wares and stores to sell them. The current figure-"

"Not those figures, we can fiddle with them later. I mean people, what are the numbers?" At this, the lead doctor of the Konoha Hospital stood up. Pushing his glasses up so that they were high set against his eyes which were surrounded by dark chestnut hair, he started. \

"Sir, we have just started collecting the dead, but the figures are around three thousand and rising, this including both ninja and civilian forces. Ninja deaths total at about eight hundred, the rest are civilian. I'll update you with any new information as I get it." The man sat down, his report finished. "Thank you Yakushi-dono. Now, since those matters are done with, are there any other matters that the Ninja or Civilian council would like to propose?" Hiruzen knew exactly what he had just started, and was intent on making some things very clear.

The instant the words left his mouth, people stood up. There was some shuffling and fumbling, but eventually one man was left standing. This man, the right side of his body ravaged by war, asked the million dollar question. "Hokage-_sama_, I would like to inquire about the missed presence of our current Hokage, and also question the appearance and subsequent disappearance of the Kyuubi No Kitsune."

Danzo Homura. Ever since Hiruzen had gotten the title of Sandaime by the Nidaime during the Second Ninja War, Danzo had seen to it to be a nuisance that Hiruzen just couldn't get rid of. "Regarding both of your questions, I must politely request that the ambassadors for the civilian council leave, on the ground of these issues being strictly military". Of course, as Hiruzen had expected, several representative for the civilian council stood to state their denial. While Hiruzen may have been a peace loving man at one point, the recent events brought out a part of the man that even the Sandaime himself hadn't seen for decades. Deciding to make sure everyone knew what 'strictly military' meant, he slammed his palm upon the table he was resting at before any of the representatives could get going.

"As I said… _honourable_ council members… This meeting is now only for the ninja council and the military affairs units. Now, before I make you… Leave." Disturbed by the finality in his voice, the deviant council members left the room in a group. Hiruzen missed the smirk that graced Danzo's face. Turning back to the now silenced room, Hiruzen continued. "I must get your agreement to never speak of what we will discuss in this room, as it is considered double S-classed secrets." This stunned the still silent ninja council; even Danzo had his eyebrows raised. Eventually everyone agreed.

Resting his interlocked hands on the table, Hiruzen started. "The Yondaime Hokage… Is dead." All of the present shinobi had their own reactions. The youngest clan leaders, the current Ino-Shika-Cho combo all gasped. Tsume Inuzuka cupped her mouth in her hands, while Hiashi Hyuuga and Fugaku Uchiha both lowered their heads, while Danzo and Shibi Aburame simply raised their eyebrows.

"He died in battle against the Kyuubi No Kitsune at the Valley of the End, ironically enough. He has appeared to have succeeded in capturing the Kyuubi, and containing it. He ensured that our village had minimal infrastructure loss due to the attack and I will be holding the family funeral for him in two days' time. Since he considered all of you his friends, the clan leaders may come. The village funeral will be held in a week… Which leads me to the next subject."

At this point nobody spoke, the events of the day and this recent news had muted them. Seeing that nobody would speak up, Hiruzen spoke. "I assume that you all are wondering the same thing. 'How did he contain the Kyuubi?' I have come to find out that he sealed it… into a child." Hiruzen gauged the council's reactions, which were severely dulled due to the obvious stress they were going through. "That child, the child that not only contains the Kyuubi No Youko, but also the blood of Kushina Uzumaki and Minato Namikaze, is none other than their son… Uzumaki Naruto."

XxX

"**Hmm… Once again, it seems I am sealed. Perhaps the seal won't hold and I will get to destroy the village that has caged me for so long. I did see that the seal I was going into was not finished… No, a man such as he wouldn't be so sloppy. So it seems I'm stuck here for a while. Perhaps this is my fate, to be sealed. I grow tired of this damned darkness!"**

Lights flooded the scene, and within a colossal cage, stood the Kyuubi No Kitsune.

"**Maybe I should go about things differently this time… Yes, that seems appropriate. I do sense chaos on the horizon, perhaps helping my jailor out may allow me to be in the midst of it. But I will not give it to him easily, he must earn it. I am Kurama, the Kyuubi No Kitsune, and I am nothing if not a trickster."**

XxX

The funeral was a small affair, containing only Jiraiya, Kakashi Tsunade, Hiruzen and the clan heads, minus Hiashi and Fugaku. Many of the attendees cried, man and woman, nobody more than Tsunade. A few hours after the ceremony, Jiraiya ran off, and he wasn't seen until the time of the village wide funeral.

The village wide funeral brought together the many inhabitants of the city, as they all grieved, not necessarily for the Yondaime, but for all they have lost. 'He serves as the beacon towards which they all migrate… Minato was a special man, to even in death take on the emotions of so many people.' Looking down at the bundle in his arms, who had finally calmed down after days on end of crying, and stood up. He walked over to the casket that held the body double and paid his respect for the second time that week. After dropping off his offering to the dead, which was a small white lotus that was only found in the forests surrounding Konoha, he turned to look at the crowds. The small murmuring that was constantly traveling the crowds dissipated as people realized that their Hokage was making an announcement.

Looking at the crowds, he began. "Friends… Today is a day of mourning, but we must not dwell on the dead. We must remember them, not only at their best, but at their worst. Their highs, theirs lows, and how you were there for them all. That familiarity, the kinship that we so cherish, that's what we must remember them for. Each man and woman that we loved left a legacy… Including the Yondaime. His legacy continues through you, all who remember him, and through his actions. Tell me, how do you think Yondaime defeated the Kyuubi?"

The first response he received was from a small child, who yelled out "He killed it with his awesome jutsu, right?" After a small fit of chuckles from the older people of the crowd, the Sandaime continued. "Yes, and no… See, he did defeat the Kyuubi with a powerful and terrifying jutsu, but he couldn't kill it; nobody can kill a bijuu such as the Kyuubi. So he did the next best thing… He contained it, but that leads to problems all by itself. To contain a bijuu, a very strong container is needed, and the Kyuubi is the most powerful of these beings, so the most powerful of containers must be used. For that purpose, he used a child." He had to hush the crowd as murmurs sprang up. "But he was working on a clock, since the child could at oldest, be only a week old for the chakra pathways to be flexible enough to adapt to the fox's chakra. For this purpose, he chose a child that had, coincidentally, been born a week ago on the day the Kyuubi No Youko attacked. For you see, this child… Minato wanted him to be seen as the savior of our village, and that's what he truly is, the jailor of the most powerful bijuu in existence." The reactions he got were nearly divided; the ninja who knew about sealing –which was nearly all of them- understood just what kind of prodigy the Yondaime was with them, and they believed in his skill to keep the bijuu at bay. The civilians however, were of no such quality, and they had immediate and severe reactions.

"Let's kill the demon!"

"We need to keep it locked up in a cage, away from everything!"

"Let's breed it with the kunoichi force, to make powerful ninja!"

That was not to say that there weren't more understanding civilians, of which there were also many. But they simply didn't have the kind of reactions that garnered such attention. Hiruzen sighed, and pinched the bridge of his nose. "WE WILL DO NO SUCH THING!" He shouted, sending chakra to his mouth to increase the volume "I have given you one chance already, and you shoved right back in my face. From now on, nobody in this village is legally able to speak about the Kyuubi under punishment of execution; any and all cases will be swift. This is your second chance, use it wisely."

XxX

October 10th, 5 years after the rampage of the Kyuubi - affectionately called "The Beast" by the population of Konohagakure - the Sandaime Hokage, rather gruff looking for a man of age 70, sat in his office, currently active in an epic duel splayed across his desk that no Kage has ever won: Paperwork. Sighing, the Hokage spun in his comfortable chair - it had lower back support - to face the obscenely large window that displayed a view of the village of Konohagakure; The Village Hidden in the Leaves. Sighing again, the Hokage had a maudlin thought ' Minato, you were such a young Hokage, and you had so much going for you, but The Beast came and ripped that from your grasp. I only hope I can fill in this position for at least a few more years, Kami knows I'm getting too old for this shit.'

The opening and slamming of the door to the Sandaime's office broke his thought when he heard a child's voice yell "Hey Old Man! I was bored so I decided to come see you!"

Thanking the gods that could hear him for this gift, the Sandaime smiled. "Naruto, you're just a big ball of sunshine aren't you?" Hugging the small bundle of perpetual motion, he could hear Naruto's muffled reply of 'Yep!' and laughed lightly. Whenever the old man of a Hokage had thought about it, Naruto was like a grandson to him, but to the rest of the village he was "Prank Master Naruto; the destroyer of pride, dignity, and stuffy boring people!"

Of course, he was only five years old, so the pranks that he could pull were pretty much harmless. Things such as tying peoples shoelaces together was a common sight to see, as well as the whole "You dropped your pocket" shindig, the young blonde even once led a squad of ANBU into a trap where he tripped over a wire and pretended to be hurt, only for the ANBU who captured him to be sprayed with…'What was it Hiruzen? He called it "Essence of Skunk" right?' this is from a five year old boy of all things, and that filled the venerable Hokage with both mirth and bittersweet pride.

Speaking of the villagers, they were rather mild today, as it was the day that The Beast was defeated and the Yondaime Hokage died. But this day was truly for mourning, as many of the villagers had family members that had died in the attack of The Beast. He remembered the final totals of the dead 'Over two thousand shinobi had died, and nearly quadruple that in civilian deaths… No wonder the reports say that we won't be back to the average population until fifteen years from now.' It was ironic really, that the people the Yondaime sought to have Naruto be seen as a hero, treated him like dirt, made him the butt end of jokes, ignored him most of the time, kicked him out of stores rather frequently, and occasionally beat him, mostly by drunk villagers. All of these discrepancies against the boy had their own punishment, most of which was a fine that was paid to Naruto's trust fund, a few months in jail - He couldn't push for more because they were talking about "The Beast" - and the punishment for the beatings was death. The Sandaime might have been a peace loving man, but no one in his village would dare hurt the boy for fear of the repercussions of said act, and those who did, were never heard of again.

"So Naruto, how has your day been so far?" the kind old man asked after releasing said boy from the hug.

The young boy put his small arms behind his head, and made a smile akin to one a fox may make. "It's been great, Jiji! Nobody has spit on me, or glared at me, or called me names! In fact, they all smiled at me today!" The small boy blurted out in a breath.

This got the old man thinking. 'Why are they so nice to Naruto? Usually they act indifferent if nothing else but to act nicely, let alone on the day that The Beast attacked?' It wasn't that the villagers never treated Naruto nicely; it was just that October 10th was a sort of anathema to the young boy; in fact, Naruto was almost never seen on October 10th. He then realized just how far his village has fallen to the point that it was uncommon for them to be nice to a person spoke poorly of them all, not to mention the leader of the village, the Hokage himself.

"Hey Naruto, why are you here anyway? You usually stay in your apartment today and think of new pranks." The kind old man asked the orange-clad boy.

Taking a deep breath, said boy answered with his patented -Yes, patented, it's Patent No. 8857634- enthusiasm "Well Jiji, it's just that today was so nice out and everyone was being so nice to me and they actually let me into the stores and let me buy stuff and said that they hoped to see me again! But it was strange, this one old man smiled at me weird and said 'I hope they kill you tonight demon' but he was talking to a demon statue so I didn't think anything of it, it was just funny." Naruto inhaled sharply, that was a lot to say in one breath!

Feeling strange in the following silence, Naruto looked up at the Hokage, who stood stock still, almost as if he saw a ghost. "Hey Jiji, you ok?"

Getting no response, the young boy decided to leave the office and go to the paint store. There was going to be some Hyuuga's yelling about 'neon green underwear' in the city tonight!

XxX

After thinking over what Naruto had said, the Hokage had come to a conclusion: There was going to be an assassination attempt on Naruto today.

'The question is how do we stop it?' The old man was sure that he was going to have a heart attack soon.

There were several legends surrounding the old man known as the Sandaime Hokage; such as he was the one who single-handedly destroyed a supply bridge in the second ninja war, and that he had taught the sensei of the Yondaime Hokage, one of the greatest ninja to ever live, and that he had also found out the meaning of life. All of these legends were true, but he was being trounced by himself due to a simple threat, one that he wasn't sure was going to happen or not. Cursing his foggy mind, the Sandaime started thinking on the issue this brought to the village.

'There always were people who wanted the worst for the boy, but let's just post an ANBU to guard the boy tonight rather than the standard jounin, best to be safe than sorry.' "Speaking of which, I need to talk to Danzo about some things, might as well invite him over for some drinks."

He would soon be very sorry.

-That Night-

A young boy of 5 was walking towards his apartment, which happened to be in the seediest slums of Konoha, a place not for women and children, but the young child traveled through it. It was almost as if the thugs and drunks were avoiding him. Walking up the ramp to his apartment, the young boy fumbled with his keys. Continuing this pattern for several seconds, Naruto finally unlocked to door to his apartment, and walked into the small 350 square ft. studio. Turning on the light switch -and jumping for joy to find that it did indeed still worked- the young boy yawned and started towards the bathroom, intending to take a bath and go to sleep.

-Outside Naruto's Apartment-

If one were to take a long look at the tree outside of Naruto's apartment, they would not find anything out of place, but if one were to take a very long look at the tree outside Naruto's apartment, one would see two things: A dark brown blob and a black blob with a mask stabbing each other with a kunai, and the dark brown blob disappearing in a cloud of smoke and earth. But nobody took a very long look at the tree outside of Naruto's apartment, and thus, nobody saw the ANBU that the Sandaime Hokage assigned to protect Naruto that night, die.

-Inside Naruto's Apartment-

In the small bathroom that was connected to the kitchen inside Naruto's apartment, the young boy was taking a warm bath, which was strange because warm water was a luxury in the apartment complex the small boy lived in. Enjoying the feeling of the warm liquid covering his body, Naruto didn't notice the small creak of the door as it opened, revealing a dark brown silhouette, vaguely human in shape and form. But the young boy had not lived for the last five years off of charity and luxuries, so he had a developed a sixth sense of sorts, one that alerted him to any possible dangers around him. Sensing that he was indeed not alone, Naruto slowly got up and grabbed his towel. After drying off, he got on his pajamas; a small pair of fox slippers, a panda eye cover, and an orange and brown smock. Almost expecting to be beaten at any time in the near future, the young boy moved slowly and deliberately, scanning over the areas he would be walking into thrice before taking a step. After several minutes of continuing in this pattern, Naruto was sufficiently calm and relaxed, so he decided to get to bed.

Stalking the unsuspecting boy, the dark brown humanoid flicked its wrist, a glint of metal symbolizing a kunai, the only thing that was noticeable from this act. Taking a few more steps, the humanoid raised its arm in preparation to strike. As if sensing the immediate danger, Naruto jumped out of bed, spun on his heels and slammed his assailants kneecap, bending it inwards. The sharp intake of breath that followed was the only reaction to Naruto's action, and then the small boys mind faded into darkness.

-At the main gate of Konoha-

At the main gates that entered into Konoha, there was a mandatory guard of two chunnin at all times. This went back to the times of the Shodaime, were invasion was possible at any time, and one chunnin was too risky in the fact that any ninja worth their salt could take one out. Therefore two chunnin were put as guards in the hopes that if something did happen, one of the chunnin would alert the village while the other chunnin delayed the invading force. This tactic had helped many times in the recent past, but there was a flaw with this idea: Genjutsu. If the two chunnin on guard were susceptible to genjutsu, it was possible to bypass them.

"Hey Itsumo, did you hear anything?" the unnamed guard asked the other while chewing on a senbon.

"Nope, can't say I did, Genma." The guard known as Itsumo replied.

These two chunnin were almost always the guards assigned the main gate due to their special abilities and the compatibility of them. Genma had a summoning contract with shellfish, and his personal summon was a larch conch snail, and they had worked out a deal that Genma would be able to use the snail as a mace as long as Genma never ate seafood. It just so happened to be that Genma was allergic to seafood, so the deal went very well. Itsumo, while not having a summoning contract, had several skills that helped cover up Genma's weaknesses; such as fuinjutsu and long range attacks, and Genma covered Itsumo's short range deficiencies very well.

Needless to say, they worked well together.

Until you put ladies into the situation.

Hearing footsteps in the distance both chunnin perked up. "State your business and how long you'll be gone." They both said, almost robotically.

A feminine voice responded with "Well, I'll be gone for a very long time, and my business is to get my jollies before I leave." Confused with what the lady had said, both of the very gullible chunnin looked up and promptly passed out from blood loss from their nasal cavities.

-The outskirts of Konoha-

"That was too easy." A large man chuckled, a small package in his arm's grasp. Taking off with a push against the tree the man was perched in; he didn't notice the package slip, letting sun-kissed blonde hair show through the wrapping. Nor did he notice the blood red eyes following him as he made his escape into the night.

XxX

"The ninja has taken the demon-boy, Danzo-sama"

"We will let him be, I have no use for the boy, even if I did get my hands on him. He is too protected, the Sandaime saw to that."

"But what about the plan?"

"The plan will continue as it always has, this makes no difference. Now get out of my sight."

There was silence as Danzo sat in the headquarters of ROOT. "Speak of the devil…"

"…And he shall appear, old friend. I think it's time we talk."

XxX

"The ninja has taken Naruto, Hokage-sama"

Outside, the Hokage wore a mask of slight grief at what had transpired, but inside, the Hokage was absolutely furious. If one were to akin his fury with something, the most accurate assumption would be the hate that the ninja of Konohagakure felt towards The Beast as it attacked the village.

"This is disheartening. I want at least three squadrons of ANBU searching for him in the next thirty seconds, do you understand? Now GO!"

(1): FOR THE EMPEROR!

(2): YOOOUUUUTTTHHHHH!

(3): I don't know the name of the technique that allows someone to do that, so it shall be nameless.

(4): He is lying at the top of the waterfall, to clear any confusion.

(5): I would assume that such a valuable body would be disposed of properly instead of paraded around for a funeral.

Author's note:  
This is my first story, and I may not be able to update consistently due to the requirement of other things in my life that have an admittedly more important role, such as schoolwork and any family events and etc. I am planning on making this an epic length story, how long it will take to become one is anyone's guess. I plan on this being a story where Naruto is actually intelligent, and that he becomes as powerful as he should be. This will NOT be a super-powered Naruto fic; I am simply making him as strong as he should be. This is also a story that takes place in an alternate reality. I say alternate reality because an alternate universe denotes different people and different actions, whereas alternate reality denotes the same people, but different actions. My story will focus on the consequences of the line of thinking "What if Naruto was stolen by another village?" And it seemed fitting that Iwa would be the country to take Naruto, thus the title Naruto of Iwa.

Have a nice day.


	2. Chapter 2: The Great Tree of Stone

Okay, since I forgot to tell you guys about my upload schedule, I made a small bit at the end of this chapter detailing it. That being said, I think that this chapter is going to be the one that most of you don't like. Along with that, some formatting changes have been implemented, so this should be easier to read and understand what is going on.

- Chapter 2 -

Title: "Sorry Sensei! I got lost on the path of life!"

-The Day After Naruto's Capture-

"What is the meaning of this?" Hiruzen was still shocked at the events of the previous night, and he had subsequently sent out all of the standing ANBU forces but there was nothing to come of it. These feelings came out in his voice, which was full with unbridled rage and passion none but the oldest members of both councils had known, let alone remembered.

"What is the meaning of what, Hiruzen?" Everyone knew Danzo was an instigator, but to do such a stupid thing so recklessly?

"You know damn well what I mean Shimura-san, would you happen to know how one of our enemies came into our village, and under the nose of our ninja, escaped with our current-" Hiruzen snapped his eyes to the civilian council "-Out." He didn't have to say it again.

Taking a moment to do those breathing exercises his med-nin had told him to do when he was in high spirits, the aged Hokage continued. "All options are on the table, but what we're dealing with here looks like an information leak. What I need to know is… Which one of you did it." It was a test. Not a muscle moved; not a finger twitched, not even the most miniscule blink happened for the next few seconds, and that was Hiruzen needed to know. "Well, since we got that over, I'll have to ask all of you to please cooperate with me as we get you interrogated, I hope you understand; formalities and such. But Yamanaka-san, you will have to under anesthesia, for obvious purposes." All of the ninja in front of him nodded their head. To speak out was to be considered guilty.

"If that is it, I would like to initiate an emergency-state for the citizenship of Konoha, effective immediately." The Sandaime turned to one of the camouflaged ANBU in the room "Send message to the Academy to start war-time education structure, but keep the regular curriculum length. We must not appear like we are preparing for war. Also, send word to the Ambassador to the Mercantile Business League, telling them to provide a mandatory 20% discount on all items to ninja. Dismissed" With nary a puff of smoke, the message had been sent." He turned to the clan heads. "Follow me if you will."

As they left the building, none of them noticed the small puff of smoke as a moth disappeared.

- A week after Naruto's capture -

In a somewhat large room, a meeting was being held. The members of this meeting were few; in fact only two were present. But the people present were some of the most important people in the country of Iwa, the Tsuchikage and Naruto's captor.

"So, Tsuzuru, how did you avoid the ANBU cells he undoubtedly sent after you?" The Tsuchikage face was undeniably curious, but who wouldn't be?

"It was simple Tsuchikage-sama; I merely took advantage of my bloodline. It served me well during this mission." The Tsuchikage nodded.

"Ah, I forgot about that bloodline of yours Tsuzuru." "So, what are we planning to do about the boy?" The Tsuchikage's face went grim. "That's simple, we make him our weapon."

"How?"

The Tsuchikage laughed a deep, thunderous laugh, which made Tsuzuru think of a barking hound. "I have some of our top sealing experts looking at his seal, looking for any indecencies."

"But what does that have to do with making him our weapon?" The Tsuchikage smiled. It was an eerie smile, Tsuzuru thought. 'It makes him look like the Shinigami's runt cousin.'

"Anything to make him better will make him stay with us; you know how Jinchuuriki are, always power-hungry. Just take a look at our two-three, rather."

"What about his living situation?"

The small man turned serious. "I'll house him until we find a suitable adoptee. You and I both know why we can't have him, as powerful as the kid could be with us around."

"I believe your granddaughter is around his age, correct?" Tsuzuru had met the Tsuchikage's granddaughter only once or twice, but even so, she was memorable…for a kid.

"Yes, I think she's about a year or so older, perhaps…" "Perhaps what?" The anticipation and curiosity leaking out of the question made the Tsuchikage's eyes shimmer with mischief. "Oh, nothing…"

-Half an hour after the meeting-

In the Tsuchikage's room, a man burst through the door, bringing with him a large stack of papers, several of which fluttered to the ground in the breeze from the door. Spinning in his new chair - which had lower back support - the Tsuchikage took a look at the man who entered his room. The man was quite short, standing only 5' 6" - which still made him taller than the Tsuchikage, but then again, when the man you're talking to is the size of your average elementary student, who wasn't? -. He was wearing a Jonin flak jacket, and a lab coat. Looking at the man's head, he noticed shaggy red hair, which could only mean one thing, the results of the tests on Naruto's seal has come back.

"What do you have for me Ryuuji?" The Tsuchikage asked the man, but Ryuuji understood what the man in front of him meant. 'Is there anything wrong that we should know about that warrants neutralizing him?'

"U-uh sir, you may want to soundproof this room, this is some serious stuff, SS-class secrets at least." The red-haired man stalled.

"I did forget about that didn't I?" Forming some seals, the Tsuchikage did just that.

"Now, where do I begin? For the first several hours, we were observing just the main seal, after making sure the boy was constantly letting out a small amount of chakra to illuminate the seal. It wasn't until the rookie noticed a smudge on the Fuuton corner of the Five Element Seal and sent some chakra into it did we notice that not only did he have a severely underdeveloped filter seal for his demon, but that he has a memory removal seal, and a seal that has eluded us so far. We decided to try to fix the filter seal, and it turns out the Yellow Flash wasn't such a master at sealing as was believed. The seal was absolutely atrocious, letting almost 95% of the Kyuubi's taint in its chakra into his system. After an hour or so, we had gotten the seal to the point where it would filter out about 80% of the Kyuubi's taint from its chakra. The Yondaime's seal also let out much more of the Kyuubi's chakra into the boy's system, meaning that his chakra reserves will be absolutely tremendous, even for a Jinchuuriki. We also removed the memory removal seal, but we could do nothing for the other seal we found." Ryuuji recited. Ryuuji remembered what happened after he removed the memory seal… He wished he never heard or saw another child in a state like that again. It was almost as if the kid was thrashing around for his life or something…

"Hmmm…We need to put another memory seal on him, make sure he doesn't remember any of this, can you do that Ryuuji?" The short elder asked, snapping Ryuuji out of his tangential thoughts.

After seeing Ryuuji nod, the Tsuchikage continued. "Anything else you need me to know?"

Ryuuji started. "Um… Actually, I would like to say something off the cuff, if that's alright with you." After seeing the small man nod, the redhead continued. "Even though there was some damage to it, what we managed to gleam from the seal is magnificent. It's completely different from any other seals we've ever come across. For all of its faults, it's incredibly stable. If it's possible, I would like to reprint the seal so that we can see what it can actually do. Um… I know it's a little soon, but do you plan on-"

"Yes." Ryuuji nodded.

"I see then. Now I need you to just look at these papers, they're for authenticity and such."

The Tsuchikage has to suppress the urge to maim this man in front of him severely. More paperwork?

"...Out. Now."

-2 months after Naruto's kidnapping-

Naruto was bored. And if you listened to anybody who had met him, "A bored Naruto is a scary Naruto". So Naruto started looking for things to do. Taking a look around, he noticed that he had somehow managed to get into the business sector of the city, which was near the Ninja Academy. Seeing a prime opportunity for some mayhem, Naruto walked into the Academy grounds. Naruto began sneaking up to a window unnoticed, which was easy since he had to hide from his mom for hours on end just about every day to avoid eating vegetables. Suppressing his need to shudder, Naruto peeked his head out to look through the window, which was slightly opened. Pushing the window slightly, which was also easy considering that there were only Academy students in the room, Naruto crawled over the windowsill and crouched in the corner of the room. Naruto was surprised with himself, he had just infiltrated the Ninja Academy at age 5 with nobody noticing him.

"Now to see how long it takes for people to notice me..." Naruto thought.

"Alright kids, LISTEN UP!" Everyone in the room jumped at least three inches. The instructor walked into the room, but Naruto didn't bother looking.

"Today we are going to learn about chakra, before we begin, does anyone in this room know what chakra is?" Seeing a raised hand, the instructor nodded to the girl to begin.

"Chakra is the energy that we use for our jutsus. Chakra is made from mental energy, chi some may call it, and physical energy, which some people call ki. It is said that the more mental and physical energy you have, the more chakra you can control and wield." The girl finished.

"Thank you for that explanation Fu. She was spot on in her explanation, so that leads us to what today's activity is, figuring out how much chakra you actually have." Naruto saw a young boy raise his hand before the instructor called on it.

As if on cue, two other instructors came into the room carrying a large machine, which had a large platform for the students to stand on and a measuring system that looked like a thermometer.

"All righty kids, here how it works, you just channel chakra into the platform and it tells you how much chakra you have, and for those of you who forgot, you channel chakra by concentrating on where you want it to go, and will it to go there. Now, the way this thing works is that it takes your chakra and converts it into electric energy, which powers the meter to the right of the platform. This measurement gives your chakra output in Chakra Units, or CU. Anywhere from five-hundred to about twelve-hundred and fifty is where an average academy student would be for chakra, twelve-hundred and fifty-one to about four thousand is a genin, from there on until eleven thousand is a chunin, from eleven thousand and one to about nineteen thousand is a Jonin, nineteen thousand and one to about twenty-five thousand is ANBU, twenty-five thousand and one to about thirty-five thousand is where the Sannin of Konoha would be, and anything above that is a Kage."

"Any questions?" One of the students raised their hand, and Naruto could've sworn that he was being stared at. "Yes?"

"How do you channel chakra?"

The temperature in the room dropped several degrees. 'This is one of those civilian kids who just joined our class. I wonder why he was bumped ahead.' "Are you telling me… That you decided that being a ninja was a good life decision, and then you don't even think of learning how to do the most basic thing all ninja must do in order to succeed?" There was a pause, and a few huffs. "Chakra usually can only be accessed after you meditate and try to find where it is. Why don't we all take a few minutes to try and find our chakra, hmm? It's a simple exercise."

Naruto smiled. 'I've always liked accessing my chakra; it feels like I'm swimming in pudding.'

It was around this time when the instructors were having a discussion. The ones who carried the platform came over to the class instructor. "Hey, who's the blonde one?" The man looked over to Naruto. "I think I might've seen him around a few times, but he doesn't look old enough to be in the Academy yet." The other instructors nodded. "From what I hear his name is Naruto or something, Haruna adopted him just last week too, but that's from what I hear." "Haruna huh…? That actually makes a lot of sense. Guess that means we'll be seeing him here next year, huh?" "Guess so."

After another few minutes of silence, the instructors could feel that all of the students had accessed their chakra pools, even Naruto. 'That blonde has a lot of chakra for an academy student.' "Now, who shall begin…? How about that little boy in the corner over there, whom I only just noticed?" Everyone turned to look at the corner the instructor was pointing to. Nobody noticed that the other instructors were giggling.

'CRAP!' was the only thing Naruto thought when he heard that.

Rising slowly, Naruto turned around, a sheepish grin on his face and his right hand on his neck. "Okie dokes then, but I tell ya, I'll have to try a few times to get it right." As he walked down the classroom, he heard whispers.

"Where did he come from?"

"He's wearing orange! How could we not notice him?"

As he got to the machine, the instructor, who he could tell was a lady from her voice, motioned for him to get on the platform. After he got on the platform, he decided to try what the instructor said to do for channeling chakra. Forming a seal for the bird -everyone who wanted to become a ninja knew all of the hand signs before they went into the academy- Naruto willed his chakra to listen to him and flow into the platform. He could feel his chakra beginning to move, but then it just stopped. Sighing, Naruto switched to a tiger seal, and tried once more. His chakra seemed to move some more, but it stopped again. This pattern continued until he had exhausted all but one possible hand signs that he knew.

"Well, one last try huh?" By now, the entire class was either silently waiting for another failure, or actively trying to hold in their laughter, but Naruto didn't care. He then proceeded to put his index and middle fingers from both of his hands into a cross pattern. Concentrating much harder than he had before, Naruto demanded that his chakra go where he wanted it to. This time, his chakra reacted much faster than before, so fast in fact, it was almost instantaneous.

From an outsider's observation, it would have looked like Naruto had just moved his fingers into the position for the ram seal and got a constipated look on his face, until his entire body began to literally shake. After a few seconds of shaking, an absurdly huge delphinium blue aura surrounded Naruto, which was soon sucked into the platform he was standing on. The thermometer looking machine began whirring, a blue arrow that was at the bottom of it shoot up, slow down and stop on the number 18425 (1). For several moments nothing happened, and then time caught up. Before any of the instructors could stop him, being as amazed as they were, Naruto simply walked out of the door, with a rather curt "Smell ya later!" (2)

-With the Instructors several hours later-

"Did any of you know who that little boy was?" An instructor asked, slightly perturbed at the day's event.

"I have an idea of who it might've been." One instructor said, her hair covering her eyes.

"Well, if you have an idea, tell us Yumi." Another instructor said, getting the entire staff's attention.

"Do you remember that incident about a month ago with that kid stuck in the Tree of Stone yelling for somebody to help get him out?" Yumi started.

"Of course we do, the Tsuchikage had to help him out of the tree, and many of us still wonder how he got to the top of it."

In Iwa, there was a tree called the Tree of Stone. It was an extremely rare wood called Ironwood. Ironwood was used for many of the ninja weapons before the Third Ninja War, and after the war, almost no Ironwood trees survived the War, but one. The tree was in the center of the city, and it had mutated from its original traits. Instead of being as tough as iron, it was much harder, so hard in fact that it had survived several S-rank jutsu that were made specifically to destroy the tree. It would also expel small amounts of chakra constantly and in different volumes, making it almost impossible to climb the tree using ninja techniques. There was also another rumour about the Tree; it would only accept certain chakras to climb it. This meant that of all the ninja there had ever been could try to climb the Tree, but since only the Sandaime Tsuchikage has a compatible chakra only the Sandaime Tsuchikage would be able to do it. But it was just a rumour. There was also an award for anybody able to climb the tree to the very top, and only one person had gotten it, and that was the current Tsuchikage, who had to climb the entire 575 foot tree as a training exercise.

"Well, I know how he got up there." This caused instant silence. Getting no response, Yumi continued. "He used chakra." There was an out roar of comments, but after a few moments it was quiet again.

"So, are you saying that the kid who was stuck in the tree used chakra, and that he was also the kid from today?" was the general question.

"The one and only." Was Yumi's response.

"How would you know whether or not he used chakra?" one of the instructors asked Yumi, evidently not believing her story.

"Because I was the one who taught him how to, indirectly or not."

-Flashback No Jutsu!-

-A few weeks after the kidnapping-

It was a peaceful day in Iwa, there was a slight breeze coming in from the north, which brought with it a somewhat dry heat, temperature reaching nearly thirty-seven degrees Celsius. It was about noontime, meaning that the Ninja Academy was still in session, and everybody was going about their daily business. This meant that Naruto, who was only five at the time, was outside playing. This was not unusual, in fact, Naruto was often allowed to play outside, but what was unusual was that he was playing in the Ninja Academy's backyard, where most physical training took place. If one were to watch Naruto, they would see him playing with a few bugs with a small smile on his face. It was about five minutes after playing with aforementioned bugs that Naruto got bored. And a Naruto that is bored is a dangerous Naruto, no matter how old. Knowing that the "Cool ninja-kids" as he liked to call them, were still in their classes, he snuck up to one of the windows that were slightly open, letting a warm breeze slip into the room. Naruto was lucky, exceptionally so, and when he pressed his ear to the space opened by the window, he heard part of a lecture…

"Okay, do any of you have familiarity with chakra?" The instructor asked, and was not surprised to see that every single person that she could see raised their hand, except for one. 'Who's that little kid there? He's doesn't even look like he's four years old.' (3) Expelling her stray thought, she continued her lesson, "Do any of you know how to channel chakra?" Once again, she was not surprised to see that nobody she saw raised their hand. Knowing she had her work cut out for her, she got to work. Grabbing a book from her desk, she flipped it open to a page that consisted of a rather large headline saying 'How to Channel Your Chakra' and a few paragraphs of small print underneath it.

Taking in a breath, she began to read one of the few paragraphs beneath the headline. "Chakra, which is the culmination of both your physical and mental energy, is an essence required for continued living. Since chakra is so important, it is just as important that you learn to channel your chakra correctly. It begins with the ability to meditate, searching your body for the ability to sense and communicate with your chakra. After you can 'feel' your chakra as it were, you can simply will it to serve your commands. As a fact of nature, it is indeed much easier for a person with a rather small amount of chakra to command his or her chakra, and inversely much harder for a person with a large pool of chakra to control and command it."

Letting the information sink in, the instructor continued after a few minutes.

"Now, I want you all to start meditating and try to find your chakra."

Naruto was trying to process what he had heard, and knew that to channel this "catra" as Naruto liked to call it, he needed to meditate, or stay still. Sitting down, Naruto started to concentrate, somehow thinking that he, at five years old, could in fact channel chakra. As it turned out, it did not matter one's age when learning to mold and control chakra, it simply mattered that one had to ability and mental capacity to. After about three minutes of just sitting down and concentrating to the point that he could be mistaken as constipated, a small blue glow started to surround young Naruto, surprising the boy to no end. Naruto actually started giggling at the warmth his chakra seemed to exude. After he stopped laughing, he started listening in on the classroom again, hoping to learn about something he could have fun with like this 'chakra'

The instructor looked up at her class, seeing that everyone was finished trying to access their chakra. Nodding to herself, the instructor started talking to her class. "Okay everyone; now that you know how to access your chakra, it's time for you to learn how to use it. If you'll all follow me outside, I'll show you something that will help you with your chakra control." Opening the classroom door, Yumi motioned for the children to meet her out in the field. After the last of the children left the room, Yumi walked over to the window that Naruto happened to be sitting under. Poking her head out of the window, Yumi looked down at Naruto with a rather strange look. "Hey kid, why are you here?" Looking up, Naruto noticed that the lady above him was waiting for him to answer, so Naruto did exactly that. "I'm here because I can be?" Naruto replied, a sheepish look on his face. After hearing his response, Yumi was curious. "Aren't you supposed to be at home or at day-care or something?" After she said this, she regretted it. Naruto's eyes gained a mischievous glow about them, and the smile that adorned his face stretched from ear to ear. With excessive enthusiasm, the blonde replied with "Well, at my day-care, they let us play outside, and there's a patch on this fence that is covered over with a painted tarp, and if you take that away, there's a patch of brambles. It was just a way of getting through the brambles and I was Scott free!" Surprised by the explanation that the small child gave her, Yumi became interested in the child sitting underneath her. "Hey kid, wanna come see something cool? I may even teach you how to do it, seeing as how you somehow accessed you chakra" As though she flipped on a switch, Naruto was already inside the classroom waiting for Yumi to walk him over to the field. 'Such a strange kid…'

After reaching the field, Yumi walked out in front of her class, garnering their attention. "Alright kids, I said I would show you something you could do to increase your chakra control, so watch closely." Walking up to a somewhat large tree, Yumi spent a moment to concentrate, sending her chakra to her feet, creating a blue pad that surrounded them. After doing this, she proceeded to walk up the tree, until she reached a branch that was large enough to support her weight, where she then stepped on the branch, and then swung downwards, until she was perpendicular with the ground below. All the while, Yumi's students were completely flabbergasted. "How can she do that? I want to learn how to do that!" was on most of the students' minds. When Yumi started walking back down the tree, she was greeted with applause from her students and Naruto, whom was listening to Yumi intently. When Yumi touched solid ground again, she looked at her class and answered the unasked question. "All you need to do to learn how to do this is to generate chakra, mold it around your feet and try to move up the tree. I suggest getting a running start until you can do it well. Also, if you use too much chakra, you'll be blasted off the tree; too little and you'll slip".

Stepping around to the back of the field, Yumi watched as her students tried to get up the tree like she had. Yumi was surprised to see that some of her female students were able to reach some of the low lying branches, which were about ten feet up the tree. 'Girls usually have better chakra control, so it's no big surprise there' Yumi mused. She glanced around the field and happened upon Naruto, who was running at the tree, a deep blue aura of chakra surrounding his feet. As soon as he jumped onto the tree – he only jumped a few inches higher than the roots – the bark on the tree started to splinter, until it literally exploded when Naruto took a step, sending him flying backwards a few feet until he slid across the ground, where he ended looking up at the figure of Yumi. Greeting her with a smile he got back up with a groan

"Well that was fun, but now my clothes are dirty." Yumi was stunned at how this little child who looked only to be four years old, had literally blown up part of a tree, flew back, slid a good five feet, and still got up without even hinting at any injury.

When all the kids were about to drop from exhaustion due to their activities, a loud ringing noise came from the school, which signaled that school was over for the day. With many exasperated sighs of relief, the students went out into the front field to greet their parents and go home. It wasn't until the last of her students left the field that Yumi heard another explosion coming from behind her. Turning around, she saw Naruto still trying to get up the same tree as before, only this time he had been able to make it about ten feet before he was blasted back again. Walking up to the child, she put her hand on his shoulder. After she got Naruto's attention, she continued. "Kid, you need to head home, your mother is probably worried sick about you. You're doing great, by the time you enter the academy you should be able to do this, and that's something to be proud of." 'If I run into Haruna, I can get her to give him a little push."

Naruto looked at the instructor, a strange look flashing across his face. As if convincing himself of something, he blurted out "Well, my mom doesn't come home until after it's dark, but I'll go home if you want."

Yumi, feeling slightly guilty at the young boy's tone, grabbed his hand and led him to the front field of the academy. After they had left the academy grounds, Yumi looked down at the child she was leading. "Kid, where do you live?" Naruto smiled, and started to run off in a seemingly random direction. Little did Yumi know that he was leading her to the Tsuchikage's personal estate…

-A few months later-

It was a bright sunny day in Iwa, the birds were chirping, their quaint songs reaching across the rocky village, kids were playing in the parks and playground, happy to be able to have fun with the others. Among these sights, Naruto was walking down the street. Making sure not to look around, Naruto kept walking until he reached his destination: the market. When he got to the shop he was looking for, he separated two of the several flaps that shielded the shop from the harsh sunlight that often accompanied the spring and summer in Iwa. Walking up to the bar of the shop, he yelled out to the cook "Ohayo Morimoto-Jiji, could you get me a plate of beef barbeque?" At the mention of his name, the cook of the shop smiled generously at the boy before him "Sure thing Naruto, but it's gonna be a small, we had an Akimichi come in from the Konoha Embassy, we are nearly out of beef." At the cook's response, Naruto looked slightly downtrodden. "As long as it's not just the vegetables, I'll be okay. I'm pretty tired. I just finished mastering how to climb trees with my chakra, I can't wait until I can tell my mom!" Hearing this, the cook gave Naruto a small smile, giving him a small plate of barbeque beef with some local vegetables. After Naruto had finished the meal, he begun to pay the cook the correct amount of currency that his dish had cost. Morimoto never did understand how the small kid always had money to pay for his meals, especially when his meals could reach into the dozens of plates.

After saying goodbye to the cook – who happened to be like a father figure to the small child – Naruto made his way back to his house. Naruto, in the last few months, had figured out a way to travel the streets in Iwa without being asked if he was lost or accosted in anyway. What Naruto would do is to find the nearest woman to him and follow that woman until either he was at his destination or he had to go a different way than the woman he was following, which at that point he would try to find another woman who happened to be going the way he was.

Such was the case as Naruto was following a quite plump woman who was going into the main square of town, which happened to be on the way to Naruto's house. When they arrived at the square, the first thing Naruto saw was the gargantuan tree looming over the heads of citizens and ninja alike. This tree was the last Ironwood tree known to exist, but Naruto was oblivious to this fact. When he looked up at the tree, he remembered his visit to the academy those months ago and how he had finally mastered the tree walking technique just earlier this day. When he remembered this, he decided then and there that he was going to climb this tree. Gathering the necessary chakra to the soles of his feet, Naruto made a run for the tree. As soon as he reached the bark of the tree he was thrown back, landing on his back end. He tried again, and again, and again, just trying to latch onto the tree so that he could walk up it. He had been doing this for not even five minutes before a crowd gathered around him, wondering why this small kid was trying to climb the Ironwood Tree. After several more minutes of trying to latch onto the tree with little success, Naruto began to get annoyed. He took a moment to concentrate his chakra, forcing it down to his feet, pushing it until it became as thin and as powerful as it could be. When he thought that he had enough chakra on his feet, he started a bull rush at the tree, crying out an "I will never be defeated!" When his foot touched the tree, instead of the force pushing him back like he was expecting to fight against, the tree seemed to absorb the chakra on his feet until there was just enough to climb it. Naruto took a second to bathe in his success before walking up to the tallest branch he could, and sat on it. It was at this point that Naruto noticed something strange going on around him: The branches were moving around. Naruto put his index finger into his mouth and felt for any air currents like he had seen his mom do many times, but he felt none. Then he heard it:

'Do not be afraid, young one. I am going to give you a gift that you will find very useful when you become a ninja.'

"Who is that?" Naruto asked to the air around him, expecting a ninja to pop up and tell them that it was they who said that. But he was not prepared for the response he got.

'It is I, the great and might Ironwood Tree, the last of my Kind, and most powerful. As I said before, do not be afraid, I am merely giving you a gift for climbing me, I have not seen such determination in a very long time, and never from one as young as you.'

"Thanks I guess, but what is this gift you talk about?" Naruto questioned, his curiosity piqued.

'It's a piece of my bark. The piece of my bark is for you or a master blacksmith to make a weapon of it. If you do make a weapon of it, it shall be second to none. It will have an edge like no other blade, and will never dull. It will also be able to conduct chakra, allowing you to use it as a catalyst for any techniques you may learn that are compatible with weapons. Now go young one, I have given you your gift. May your destiny be your own and your life full of happiness.'

After the… Tree finished speaking, a piece of bark approximately 4 feet long fell from above him, and fell to the ground with a great 'boom'. It was then that Naruto looked down.

"Waaaaaah! Somebody get me down from here!"

It was not until several minutes later that Naruto was taken from the tree by the Sandaime Tsuchikage, who had a smirk on his face, unlike the visages of astonishment that adorned most of the crowds watching below.

-Flashback No Jutsu Kai!-

"And that's how it happened, according to what Naruto told me."

Yumi looked at the clock in the staff lounge, which signaled that it was very near her bedtime. "Sorry guys, can't talk anymore, gotta get to bed, and see you all tomorrow!" Yumi waved goodbye as she left the academy for her house. It was not until she was lying in bed that her thoughts fell on the little blond that was making such a ruckus around the village. 'Naruto, you're such a strange little boy.' And with that final thought, Yumi fell into the blissful land of the sleeping.

XxX

-2 years after the kidnapping-

"Okay kids, listen up, were going to be learning about elemental affinities today." A young academy instructor called out to the class. In response, the class became deathly quiet.

'1.042 seconds, nice' the instructor thought, mildly impressed. The instructor remembered the days were they were expected to become quiet within .75 seconds, but as it was now, with all the peace that was encompassing the elemental countries, and she could give her students some leeway.

Holding up a block of paper, the instructor continued. "Now that I have you attention, were going to be doing a little test today -Groans could be heard from the class- none of that yet, it's not even that hard of a test, you just have to focus some chakra into these papers and I'll tell you what you have. As simple as that." Noticing that one of the more troublesome students of hers was missing, she decided to voice her concern. "Has anyone seen Naruto today?"

-Half an hour earlier-

Crash. Bang. Crack.

Those were the noises being heard in the Tobayame household, as a blur of yellow was speeding around the house looking for something. 'Come on', I know I left the sandals next to the door, where are they?' As the boy continued his mental haranguing of himself, an elderly man, obviously hard of seeing, was kneeling at the dining table, a brand new ninja sandal in his hand and the other in his mouth. "Jiji, I told you not to go off by yourself! My sandals are not your morning toast!" The yellow blur reprimanded his elder.

Slipping on his now soggy sandals, the boy set out to begin a new day at the academy...

"Naruto, did you remember to brush your teeth, comb your hair, eat breakfast, put on new underwear, take a shower..."

Mothers. The scourge of all children.

"Yes mom, I did all of that stuff!" The boy now identified as Naruto replied, running out of the door.

-At the academy-

"Has anyone seen Naruto today?" The instructor asked, at the exact time that the doors went swinging wildly, almost coming off their hinges. "I'm here Yumi-sensei!" The instructor was visibly relieved, since even though Naruto lived about a block away from the academy, he was notorious for becoming lost. Yumi, seeing that Naruto was sweating, realized that he had indeed got lost. Again.

For the twelfth time.

"Well, make sure you have a map next time, but you got here just in time too, seeing as how we're going to find our elemental affinities today." The lady scolded.

Not to be one without a detailed explanation, Yumi went into lecture-mode. "Elemental affinities are the lifeblood of all ninja techniques. There are five basic elements; Fuuton (Wind), Doton (Earth), Suiton (Water), Katon (Fire), and Raiton (Lightning). There are also many sub-elements, but those are only accessible by advanced bloodlines and geniuses with near perfect control over two or more elements. Since you are only 9 or 10, we don't expect you to have more than a very basic affinity for only one element, although it has been noted that some people as young as you have multiple affinities. Affinities also determine what ninja techniques you can use. This is because, let's say you have a wind affinity, which is rare, you could only use Wind techniques to great effect. To put it simply, if you use techniques you have an affinity to, you do it at 110%, but any other element is only 80%, so it's useful to have many techniques for your affinity." Seeing that she had put nearly half of the class to sleep, she sighed. "Now let's get this over with, I will call you by your surname, a-z to come and find out your affinity. Ayama Mizu...

-Several minutes later-

"Toba Fu, come here please" This caused a reaction within the class, almost all of the boy that were not paying attention were now looking on with a focus that had the intensity of a thousand white-hot suns, with hearts in their eyes, that is, all boys other than Naruto, who was sleeping, a small snot bubble coming out of his nose, and the girls gave a glare of similar intensity to the young girl that came up. Picking her piece of paper, Fu started focusing chakra into it, where it became scorched.

Yumi, her face one of surprise, stated "Well, you're a fire affinity, very rare here in Iwa, and a strong one as well. Good job. Next up, Tobayame Naruto"

This caused the same reaction as before, but the roles were switched, and you removed all the googley heart-eyes. Naruto Tobayame was the only student who did better than Toba Fu, and he caught a lot of flak for it. Sometimes he would be jumped after school by boys wanting her recognition, since Toba Fu only recognized those stronger than her. Nobody has ever succeeded in beating Naruto yet, but that was self-explanatory, he was as sly as a fox. That and the fact that he was the top student in Taijutsu helped. Although Naruto was abysmal in Nin and Gen-jutsu, so it sort of evened out the playing field. Shaking off the thoughts of what might happen after school today; Naruto picked up one of those slips of paper and started to focus his chakra into it.

Chakra was always a moot point for Naruto. He had so MUCH of it, having more than a rookie ANBU agent by his age, which was absolutely unprecedented, but that also meant that his control of said chakra was sub-par by a proportionate amount. So, as Naruto started to will his chakra into the slip of paper, a visible aura, delphinium blue in color, started surrounding his body. It took a few moments before Yumi felt that this was chakra, and not some sort of strange energy as she thought at first it might have been. When Naruto finally stopped focusing his chakra, his slip was nowhere to be seen.

"Hey Naruto, try it one more time, and don't let so much chakra out this time okay?" Yumi cautioned, severely perplexed on what had just happened. 'I knew he had a lot of chakra, but he doesn't give off the signs that people with that much chakra do. Is he subconsciously dampening his chakra?

"Okie-dokes Sensei!" Was the boy's oh-so intellectual response, who then tried to focus less chakra into the new slip of paper into his hands, and what happened was surprising to say the least.

His slip of paper was sliced into numerous small pieces, and those pieces became singed.

Stunned by this turn of events, Yumi could only react robotically. Patting Naruto on the head and pushing him towards his seat, the rest of the class continued in a daze until the bell rang.

"Well, unless there are any questions, I think we should start our taijutsu neh?" Seeing that a few hands were raised, she picked on the first one she saw, a young boy with a hat that had the face of a raccoon on it, Ko Tran. Seeing that she was looking at him, the young boy asked in a small whisper "Uhm...Sensei...what happened to Naruto's paper? We all saw it get cut up and then get burnt, what does that mean Sensei?" Seeing that Yumi was having a hard time thinking of an answer, the young boy started to withdraw his question when Naruto yelled "Yeah! What does it mean? I want to know what my affinity is!" As if reacting to that statement, a small piece of chalk flew through the air and bonked Naruto in the forehead, making him fall from his desk, where he had stood to yell out.

Starting off shakily, Yumi responded in the only way she knew how: with lecture-mode. "Well, Naruto, what happened with your slip of paper has only happened once before. It seems that you have two affinities, somewhat strong ones at that, and they are both the rarest kinds to come from Iwa: Wind and Fire. This means that you'll have an easier time casting Fuuton and Katon jutsus, and you have the unique possibility of being able to cast combination jutsus, since Fuuton and Katon work so well together. But what surprises me is the fact that your Wind affinity was the strongest I've seen in years, at least for an academy student." Yumi continued "In fact, your Fire affinity was somewhat strong as well, about as strong as a rookie genin fresh from the academy, while your Wind affinity is almost as strong as an elite Chunnin's. If I remember right, the only other people in this village -'That aren't missing-nin'- that has a Wind affinity is the Tsuchikage, but I doubt he'll actually teach you anything. Right now you want to focus on your Fire affinity, and I can help you with that." The lady said/thought as she focused chakra to her palm and a small ball of yellow flame sprang into being. A small uproar of 'ooh's' and 'ahh's' rewarded Yumi for her show of skill.

The reason that Yumi was trying to help Naruto was because he is the dead-last of her class. While this may not have been any cause for concern if he was just a lazy bastard, like that one student Go Shoji – Whoever names their kid that is a sadistic bastard - but Naruto put his everything into all that he did, and that only barely got him to be passing. It wasn't for a lack of knowledge; it was just that his practical scores for genjutsu, ninjutsu and chakra control were horrible, while his test-taking skills were sub-par. His only saving grace was that his taijutsu scores were top of the class.

Seeing that there were no more questions, as her audience was sufficiently subdued, she chose to continue the lesson. "Okay everyone, time for taijutsu practice! And after that were introducing throwing skills into our practice time, so I need to see were your skills are at as you begin.

Said taijutsu practice was actually just a random instructor showing the students a few katas from the academy taijutsu style, so it passed in relative silence. The real show today was the throwing practice. Seeing as this was the first time that many of the students had ever held, let alone seen a shuriken, Yumi was not expecting any scores over 80%.

A wise man once said to expect the unexpected. Sadly, Yumi never heard of said proverb, so she was happily surprised when not only Fu scored 85%, but Naruto scored 80%, and a quiet boy that went by the name of Yamato Suzuki scored an overall 100% with both kunai and shuriken.

Hearing another bell ring, Yumi yelled out "Okay everyone, schools over, go home, take a scroll of chakra control exercises with the name of your elemental affinity and remember to take a shower!" Hearing several groans and giggles, Yumi waited until she saw Naruto and stepped in front of him.

"Naruto, do you remember when I said that I was going to help you with you Fire affinity?" Seeing the boy nod, she continued. "Well, let's get you started on that, neh?" Yumi was unaware of the ground being that close to her face before she remembered that Naruto, the second he heard what she was saying, glomped his sensei yelling "I'm not worthy! I'm not worthy!"

-Thirty minutes later, after a meal of ramen, and the emptying of a wallet-

"Naruto, when I offer to take you out for dinner, say no okay? I don't think my wallet can take those hits." The now severely poorer lady begged.

"It's not my fault you didn't know of my obsession with ramen sensei!" The young boy responded. Naruto could still remember the first day he had tried the Kami-sent food called ramen…

-Flashback No Jutsu!-

-Several months earlier-

Naruto was happy. He had just started to walk on different surfaces with his chakra, such as the side of building, street lamps, and even the side of a mountain! Naruto thought it was strange that different surfaces required different amounts of chakra to climb. He only figured this out when he just slipped off the side of a building. He had used to normal amount of chakra that he would climb trees with, so why couldn't he walk up this building? Getting an idea, Naruto started focusing more chakra to his feet and when he thought that he had gathered enough to his feet, Naruto dashed off to the building, only to slip off again. Naruto started to focus even more chakra to his feet and repeated the process until he felt that he had gathered enough chakra in his feet, he made another charge at the building, but this time he didn't slip off. Memorizing the amount of chakra he needed to stick to the building, he jumped off, doing acrobatic stunts in the air.

Noticing that the sun was high in the sky, which indicated that it was around noon, Naruto's intestines erupted into a horrible growl. Naruto, not knowing that it was not his stomach that made those noises, looked around for any places where he could eat. Finding none, Naruto went to the one place that he knew for sure served excellent food: Morimoto's. Heading in the restaurant's general direction, Naruto was thinking about what he was going to have for lunch today 'Will I have the beef barbeque? Or the shrimp tempura? Or maybe even the sushi special?' As Naruto finished mulling over the choices that his favorite restaurant could serve him, he finally noticed that he was standing in front of the flaps that marked the entrance into said establishment. Folding over two of the flaps so that he could walk in, Naruto sat on one of the bar stools and yelled out to the back "Hey Mori-Jiji, can I get some sushi?" When the cook responded, it was something Naruto was not expecting to hear: "No, you cannot Naruto; I have something special I want you to try!"

"Really Jiji? Bring it on then!" Naruto challenged, eager to see what his favorite cook had created. Within a few moments, the cook had placed a small bowl of noodles in front of Naruto. Grabbing hold of his chopsticks, Naruto began stringing the noodles around them. After gathering enough noodles to make a small ball encompassing the end of his chopsticks, Naruto took a tentative bite… Then another… and another, until before he knew it the entire bowl was empty of the tendrils of deliciousness. Looking at the still steaming broth, Naruto pulled the bowl to his face, and slurped up some of the liquid. He couldn't believe it! The broth was even better than the noodles!

"Jiji, what is this stuff? Naruto asked, completely stunned at the sheer amount of tastiness he had just ingested.

"Naruto" The old man replied "This is called ramen, I happened to pick the recipe up from a travelling cook and his daughter. He and I shared a lot of similarities, so we decided to share our recipes. What do you think Naruto, is it any good?" Morimoto was sure that he had made it wrong, he had to substitute some spices that couldn't be found anywhere other than Konoha, so he thought it wouldn't be as good as the travelling cook made it.

"Jiji, this is…." Morimoto waited for the guillotine that would behead his dreams of expanding his business past the traditional meals he served. It seemed silly, making such a huge decision based on the opinion of a little kid, but Morimoto had done this before. He had asked Naruto to try his barbeque beef, which he had never served before, and Naruto thought it was delicious, so he started selling it as one of the items on his menu, and before the season's end, the beef dish was the most ordered dish he had ever had."… Delicious! Can you make some more for me? Maybe you could even put some tofu in here, or an egg, maybe even some beef or pork…"

That was all that the old cook had heard before his head began to swim with ideas on how to get Naruto's mother to agree to make the small child his own personal taste-tester; part-time of course. Seeing that Naruto was staring at him intently, Morimoto perked up. "Naruto, you said you wanted some more ramen right?" At this the small boy nodded his head so vigorously that his body shook. "Well, let me get some different ingredients then, I want you to tell me what you think of them, and be truthful, nobody likes liars." Naruto, looking up at the man, asked in a curious tone

"Jiji, will I have to pay for all the ramen?" Morimoto smiled, grabbing the blonde haired boy by the shoulders, the cook led him to the back room. "Naruto, this is all on the house, but just this once okay? I have a business to run remember?" And with that, Morimoto closed his store and had Naruto taste test his ramen recipes until dinner came and the small boy had to leave for home.

-Flashback No Jutsu Kai!-

Sitting down, Yumi sighed. She had gone home to get her scroll on chakra control using specific elements to increase both chakra control and elemental affinity at the same time, but Naruto had pretty much dragged her to his favorite ramen stand, Morimoto's. So they had wasted about half an hour on food, and now Yumi was grumpy and poor, but she was dead set on teaching that blonde with the stomach akin to a black-hole.

Going up to the tree that had the sign 'Training Area 38', she bonked a sleeping Naruto – complete with a snot bubble coming from his nose - on the head.

"Wake up Blondie, I'm here to teach you, not let you sleep around!" Sitting up in a daze, the whiskered boy looked around with a disgruntled look marring his face. "I know for a fact that this is not my house and that you are not my mom, so what am I doing here?" Seeing the confused face of his teacher, he paused,

"Just kidding! So, what are we going to learn today? Is it a super awesome jutsu that will kick Fu's butt? Or maybe something that will go Blish-KABOOM!" All the while Naruto was gesturing with his hands, making what he was saying very amusing. Sensing that his sensei was holding back a few giggles, he shouted "Hey! What's so funny?" In response, Yumi just pointed at him and started rolling on the ground, giggling like a madwomen. Calming herself, Yumi brought a scroll that he had kept in her pocket.

"We're going to be learning some chakra control exercises today, and don't groan like that, these are especially suited for people with large chakra capacities, so you'll learn them easily. Now, the first thing we need to do is to get a fire going, after we do that, I'll tell you what you'll be doing."

Sending him off to go collect firewood, Yumi contemplated what she was actually teaching the boy. "Usually these exercises are reserved for ninja of chunnin rank or more." Yumi had only grabbed those control exercises because she had a feeling that no matter what level of impossibility it was for a genin to learn them, she had a feeling Naruto could. "I just hope he doesn't hurt himself..." she whispered.

Unfortunately, Naruto was standing right behind her with a large load of firewood, exemplifying his skill in stealth. Naruto was graced with a choice opportunity to scare his teacher, and that almost never happened, so being the prankster that he is, Naruto fervently took the opportunity. "Who do you hope doesn't hurt themselves sensei?" Naruto asked, tilting his head in feign innocence.

Jumping a good three inches into the air from a sitting position, Yumi whipped her head around and almost broke Naruto's eardrums with a "Where did you come from? You scared the shit outta me! "After she had said that, she covered her mouth in shock and embarrassment when Naruto yelled back "Ha-ha, you said shit! Sensei, you have a potty mouth!" Not noting that he had also said shit, Yumi told him so, and Naruto took on a sheepish look to his face.

Becoming serious, Yumi started making the fire needed for the exercise. "Okay, since we have the fire for our exercise, I want you to stick your hand in the fire." Seeing Naruto's horrified look, she continued. "Don't worry, I'll be doing it with you, in fact, let me show you a demonstration."

Sticking her hand in said flame, Naruto was about to yell about how she was going to hurt herself - Naruto's thought's on this were quote "hurt = bad, fire = hurt, fire = bad"- when the flame began to increase in size and intensity. After a few seconds, Yumi cupped her hand, and pulled out a large 'glob' of orange fire "Now this is an advanced control exercise, but if you do as well as I think you might, you can get this down by the time you finish the academy." Seeing that she had the whiskered boy's attention, she began showing him the beginner's exercises.

-Later that night-

In a small two-bedroom apartment, Naruto was sitting on his bed. He was looking at a scroll, whose edges were worn and tears were lining the paper, almost as if a person was going to rip the scroll up but decided not to. Unfurling it so that he could see the title, he read it out slowly, not being very proficient with reading yet. "Kage… Bunshin...?" Naruto put the scroll under his drawer, where he kept all of his secret stuff.

Footsteps could be heard coming down the cramped corridor that Naruto's room was situated in before his mother called out with a "Soup's on!" As though in response, Naruto's stomach began churning, letting a great gurgle escape. Coming out of his room with a large blush painted on his pace, Naruto hurried towards the dining room, where delightful smells were wafting in the air. Sitting himself down, Naruto took a moment to observe the meal before him, which consisted of baked cod -garnished with basil, cilantro, and lemon-; brown rice, and sushi. Naruto then started to inhale his food. While this was nothing like when his mom made ramen, her cooking was second to none. After finishing his dinner and excusing himself from the table, the whiskered blonde gathered some clean clothes to take a shower. After taking his shower, Naruto fished around his room for his pair of slippers, which were shaped like a fox. His mom had bought them for him when he expressed an intense interest in them. All the begging didn't persuade her anyway, it was all from the goodness of her heart. Flopping onto his bead, the 7 year old reached to his nightstand, grabbed an eye-cover with the shape of a panda on it, and pulled it over his head. He was asleep before his head hit the pillow.

-Meanwhile-

"I wonder where he gets all of his energy; Kami knows it's not natural." A middle-aged woman said, her tone slightly worried in nature.

"Don't worry Tsumi-chan, it's all fine and well, his energy is what makes him so fun, it's as if he has an endless supply of it." A male voice intoned, light and aloof.

"But I just want to make sure that he knows when it's appropriate to be so bubbly, and when he needs to be serious." Tsumi rebutted.

"Well, who better to teach him some manners than your mother? I bet Setsuna will be delighted to come see how Naruto has been." The elderly man offered with a gleam in his eyes.

"Are you sure? Kaa-san can be quite pushy, and you know Naruto..." The sentence was left hanging.

"Who better to teach him how to behave, then the only person who can stand him for hours on end?" The old man replied.

And with that final declaration, the elderly man hobbled his way to his favorite recliner and promptly fell asleep. Seeing that she was alone, Tsumi decided to get started on writing a letter to her mother, hoping that she would listen to her pleas.(4) (5)

Author Note Time!

I hope you guys like this chapter. It took me a while to type this one up, and I sort of forgot to tell you readers what I plan on my update schedule to be. I plan on uploading a chapter every three weeks to a month. This gives me enough time to actually type the damn thing and then edit it, which takes a lot longer than I initially thought.

Although, if it's alright with you guys, I can start uploading more quickly if I reduce the length of the chapters. It's entirely up to you guys, so if you're comfortable reading smaller chapter more consistently, just tell me.

Anyway, send in a review of anything you think needs a redo, or if anything seems out of place. I'll try to explain it without spoilers. I really enjoy interacting with you guys, and every review you guys give me just makes me that much more excited to upload the next chapter!

IT'S OVER 9000! I really didn't intend on that reference to show up in this story…

I can't help but imagine Naruto doing a recreation of Gary Motherfucking Oak saying "Smell Ya later" at that point, so I just had to put it in.

I try to get as into character as possible when doing dialogue; as such, some things a certain character will say doesn't exactly match up with the canon of my story. This is entirely intended and I think it adds some realism, instead of everyone knowing everyone's exact age, which is weird.

Yes, Naruto's mother's name is Tsumi. Yes this means that "Haruna" didn't adopt Naruto, but that doesn't mean "Haruna" won't be appearing sometime in this story. Think of this story as semi real-time. There are things going on in the background that I will try to explain using the present actions of the character. That being said, I will not do anything really big behind the scenes other than this. Once again, if anything confuses you, just send in a review explaining what you're confused about, I'll do my best to make sure you understand.

Okay, this may seem like a copout to most of you, but until later on in the story Naruto's name will be Naruto. I do plan on changing this, but right now, it's a leniency that I'm taking advantage of.

Other than that, there's not much else to say. I do plan on the encounter with Naruto's grandmother to be an omake, seeing as how it's only a peripheral to the story, so look out for it in the next chapter.


	3. The Genin Exams and Exam Accessories

(AN: Okay. I love you guys. You guys are awesome. All of your follows and favourites got me pumped to make another chapter, and here it is, super early and already edited. Especially with the success of last chapter, I don't think you'll guys be mad with me with what I put in this chapter. But even with the positive experience I've had with you guys so far, I feel obligated to tell you that certain characters that are introduced in this chapter will be OOC. I've tried to make their OOC-ness not too out of the blue, but with a certain character, it can't really be helped. With that out of the way, enjoy the chapter!)

Chapter 3

-Several months later-

Contrary to popular belief, Iwa did actually experience seasons, but they were usually mild and never differed by more than a few degrees. What Iwa was experiencing now, was anything but usual. It had started out with a slight gust of wind, signifying the beginning of autumn, but had escalated to a torrential downpour with gusts of wind that bent the trees, and caused general mass havoc.

Taking a look out of the paneled window, Naruto sighed. It was his birthday today, October Tenth, and he was stuck inside the house! If only the weather hadn't been so bad, the blonde ball of energy would have rushed to his favorite ramen stand, Morimoto's and had a feast of ramen, the god of noodle dishes. As though the gods had taken pity on him, he smelled the wonderful smell of seasoned broth wafting through the house. Rushing to the kitchen in a yellow blur, Naruto saw the waitress from his favorite ramen stand with a large box in her grasp. It took several seconds for both the waitress and Naruto to realize that he had latched onto her and was wailing out 'Thank you!' every few seconds. Tsumi, who was witness to what had just transpired, covered her mouth with her hand, trying to suppress the giggles that were escaping her mouth. After prying Naruto off the young girl's leg, Tsumi took a few seconds to look the waitress over.

The young girl looked to be about 10 years old, her soft brown eyes showing nothing other than innocence and ignorance of the world around her. Her chestnut hair swayed softly in the breeze from the open window, casting shadows over her face that had an ethereal glow of youth about it. She still had the faint blush from when Naruto had latched onto her , and it didn't appear to be going anywhere. Looking downwards, she saw the waitress wearing a button up shirt, obviously one meant for comfort and freedom of movement. Over the shirt, the young girl wore and apron, that had multiple splotches from where she had messed up in her cooking, or had spilled something. Taking a look at her hands, Tsumi was surprised to see a dearth of any calluses, or any blemish at all. Finally, Tsumi noticed the pants the young girl was wearing, which was a pair of sweatpants, also meant for comfort and freedom of movement. If Tsumi didn't know any better, she would've thought that the young girl wasn't expecting any business today.

"Sorry about that miss..." Tsumi fished for a name.

"Naomi!" was the answer, surprisingly or not, from Naruto. In confirmation, the young girl merely nodded.

"Oh well Miss Naomi, I'm sorry about earlier, I should've told you Naruto becomes...different around ramen, but I guess you already know that, neh?" Tsumi tried to apologize, but Naomi wouldn't hear any of it.

"Well, Miss Tsumi, I don't mind, but Naruto-san isn't so...thankful when he's at our store, so it's kind of a shock." The young girl tried to reason. "But it is his birthday, and we did deliver his favorite ramen..."

"Thank you Naomi-chan!"

"...You're welcome Naruto-kun, now I got to get along now, Father is waiting for me." Bending down so that she was eye-level with the boy, she leaned forward and gave Naruto a peck on the cheek. Blushing a deep shade of pink, she hurried out the door with a "Happy birthday Naruto-kun!" Leaving a very flustered Naruto dealing with a deep red blush.

After letting Naruto eat the ramen that was delivered -She had made her own dinner- Tsumi decided it was time for her son to open his birthday presents. Grasping a small box, she handed it to the young 8-year-old. After ripping the blue and yellow plaid wrapping to shreds, Naruto grabbed to top of the box and pulled upward, loosening the lids grip on its contents. Out of the box spilled multiple objects: A yo-yo; with a small picture of a fox with tan fur and blue eyes smiling on it, an envelope, sealed with wax in a strange pattern, it almost looked like fan blades, a note for 100 ryo, and a small piece of folded paper, it's folds making the shape of a crane, inscribed with the message 'Unfold me and read'. Unfurling the crane into a piece of readable paper, he looked for any words and found some, squinting to make out the fine print, he mouthed the words 'From your uncle, Gamahiro!' next to words was a small chibi Gamahiro holding up two fingers in the form of a 'v'. After playing with the yo-yo for several minutes, Naruto looked to his next present, the envelope completely forgotten.

Grabbing the only other present that he hadn't ripped apart long before his mom let him, an oblong box, he began annihilating the wrapping around it, pieces of purple wrapping paper fluttering everywhere in the small breeze from the open kitchen window. After ripping the last few stubborn pieces of wrapping away, he looked at the book in his hands: "Chakra Control For Dummies!" and a small note fell from within its pages. Unfurling the small note, he looked at its contents, which comprised of another 100 ryo note, and a small inscription, reading "I hope you use this well Naruto-Kun, you'll need it."

Trying to figure out who this was from, Naruto had an epiphany; it was that guy that he met on the way home!

_-Flashback no Jutsu!-_ (1)

-Several months earlier-

-Half an hour after Naruto's training ended-

In a large, deserted street, sufficiently wide enough for at least 20 people with room to stretch, a young boy was walking with pep in his step, and a proud smile on his face. "Just wait 'till the kids at school can see what I can do!" the young boy exclaimed, cheering to himself. He had a right to do so, as well. Not even an hour earlier, he had gotten down his first chakra exercise! He was by no means a master, just barely able to do what was required, but he would get better.

-Flashback in a Flashback no Jutsu!-

"So Naruto, what I want you to do, is to put your hand in the fire -Naruto started to reply- I'm not finished yet Naruto, let me continue." Seeing that her student quieted down, she did just that.

"Okay, as I was trying to say earlier, I want you to put your hand in the fire and not let it burn you." Waiting for a response, but getting no sound from her pupil, Yumi started again.

"The trick to this is to let your chakra surround your hand and will the fire around your hand to not burn you. It may sound strange, but it's actually quite useful for chakra control, which I can tell you desperately need, so consider this a head start". Naruto nodded in understanding.

Eyes widening, Naruto looked at Yumi.

"Hey Sensei, can you do this exercise with other elements too?"

Surprised by the question's suddenness, she thought for a second before nodding her head attentively and saying "I guess so, but what you would have to do would be different. Wind, for example, consists of the air around you, so you might just have to 'feel' the air that surrounds you with your chakra, but this is all speculation, because I'm no expert on elemental chakra control exercises, and I only have an affinity to Fire".

Sensing that she was beginning to get off-topic, she got to business. "Okay, Naruto, can you start to focus your chakra into and around your hand?" The boy in question merely nodded and stuck out his left hand, almost as if he was reaching for something, and began to focus. It was plain to see, as Naruto's face scrunched up with the intense concentration that was apparently needed to will his immense chakra pool to send some to his hand and keep it there. Soon some progress was made, the blonde's hand began to glow for a few seconds, and then burst into a delphinium blue flame that surrounded his entire arm. Looking to his sensei, who nodded in approval, Naruto began putting his arm into the fire, willing -no- beseeching it to not burn him. What Naruto had expected was pain, but instead all he felt was a pleasant sensation of warmth that surrounded his arm. Looking into the fire, he noticed that it seemed to curve around his appendage, making a sort of ring of flames.

Looking to his sensei again, he waited for more instructions. Yumi seemed to ponder something for a while, before nodding to herself and pounding her fist into her upturned hand. Looking to her student, she voiced her thoughts.

"Okay Naruto, you did well, but it's not good enough. While you may have just barely got away with doing it so well because your chakra covered your entire arm, I want you to be able to do the exercise with your chakra covering just your hand. Until you can do that, I will teach you no more." Seeing Naruto's downcast look, she made a quick save.

"I've already taught you an exercise reserved for ninja of chunnin rank or higher, so be happy." Seeing that her little scheme worked, Naruto was jumping up and down with joy, she smiled.

-Flashback in a Flashback no Jutsu Kai!-

Too caught up in his earlier success, Naruto was caught off guard as he bumped into someone; at least he thought it was a 'someone'. It was easily a foot and a half taller than him, reaching nearly 6' 4", but that was all Naruto could easily make out. Most of the person's body was covered up in a large cloak, under which a midnight black trench coat was worn. Narrowing his eyes, the young blonde struggled to look for any identifying markers of who this might be. Starting at his head, which yielded no results, he moved lower, to the chest area. He couldn't know for sure, but the being's shoulders were quite broad, seeing as how his cloak flared out around that area. Seeing nothing else, he moved lower again, this time looking at the person's arms. It was hard to tell under all of the layers of clothes, but Naruto saw what he thought was the bulge that signified large triceps. Looking slightly lower, he noticed a slightly more pronounced bulge, seemingly the bicep. Looking lower again, he noticed the being, which Naruto was becoming surer that it was indeed male, wearing vambraces. They weren't made out of any metal Naruto knew, which was surprising, seeing as how geology was part of his academy lessons. They looked as though they were rusted; a mixture of red-orange mixed tinged with brown. The vambraces snaked up his arm, making the illusion that they were moving. Naruto observed the vambraces more closely, noticing that there were patterns that ran along the length of the pieces of wrist armor. Slightly elevated from the metal, the patterns made the shape of three dragon scales, with an upside down trigon separating the edges (2). Several bulbous shapes ran tangent to the shape, ending in lengthy lines that mimicked fire.

This all happened in the moment he was falling down, and then the large man chuckled lightly, reached his hand down to help Naruto up, and dusted himself off. Turning around, the man started to walk away. Before he turned the corner, the man spouted off a "Have a good day child!"

Naruto started to dust himself off as well, when he noticed a small object in a pothole about three feet in front of him. Walking over to the object and picking it up, he started to look around when he remembered that the only other person on the street he was in was that man. Rushing around the corner that the man had just walked past not even five seconds ago, he noticed that nobody was there. Turning around, he pocketed the scroll and continued home, but not before he muttered a confused "Strange men and their weird habits."

_-Flashback No Jutsu Kai!-_

"Thank you..." Naruto muttered to himself, blissfully unaware that his mother was right behind him.

"Why you're welcome sweetie!" Was Tsumi's happy reply.

"Gah! Don't scare me like that mom!" Naruto grabbed his heart in mock agony.

"Mom, I'm heading to my room, gonna play with my gifts there." Naruto blurted out, already half-way up the steps to his room.

"Okay sweety, just don't break anything ok?" Tsumi replied, knowing that Naruto didn't hear a single word of it. Tsumi started to clean up when she noticed that Naruto had forgotten a gift. Picking the envelope up, she went into the kitchen to grab the letter opener. After opening the envelope, she set the contents on the kitchen table: a 50 ryo note, a scroll, and a letter that was addressed to her.

Picking the letter up, she noticed that the handwriting was that of her mother's.

_Dear Tsumi,_

_I'm quite astringed about why you would ask something such as this from me. I would happily do it for you, if not for the lucky lady Naruto will meet later on in his life, only Kami knows how someone could handle him for years on end. But to answer you, I will, and in fact, I plan on leaving by the twentieth of December, which just so happens to be the day winter break starts for my little Fishcake. I'll hopefully be in Iwa by the time the twenty-second rolls around. After I come over, we need to give our little boy a test. This is all I can write at the moment, seeing as how anything more than this would require two stamps –insert quip about politicians here-._

_Love,_

_Setsuna_(3)

'Really mom? I don't think you know what "astringed" even means…' Tsumi didn't understand the whole 'stamp' thing anyway; the government in the Land of Birds that her mother lived in did things very strangely. But if it worked for them, who was she to complain?

Sighing quietly, Tsumi began picking up the trash that littered her floor. It not until she was nearly finished that she look at the note that Naruto had gotten. She looked at the note noticing that the handwriting was slightly familiar 'I know who sent it, but I can't remember his name…' picking up the note, she looked at the reverse side, which held the chibi Gamahiro and his message to her son. 'Gamahiro! That's his name! I wonder if he's coming over this year…' Tsumi continued to pick up the trash on the floor as she thought about the company she would be having later on this year.

(AN: There's a time-skip here. It skips ahead a year. Didn't think it would be nice to spring that on you so suddenly with no warning.)

XxX

Naruto had grown in the year that had passed. His hair had grown slightly, losing its fight with gravity, but keeping its spiky nature so that his bangs now reached his eyes. He couldn't be sure, but a lot of people would give him strange looks on the streets ever since he let his hair grow. He had also grown an inch, now reaching to a height of 4' 10". The most different thing about him though was the calm the permeated the air around him wherever he went.

He had also taken to training like a madman possessed. He became semi-proficient at the chakra control exercise that Yumi had introduced to him, to the point where he could start to attempt what he had seen Yumi do. This surprised the instructor, who was expecting him to take at least six more months before he came to her for supervision. Naruto also learned many other chakra control techniques, which he practiced every day.

He had begun the creation of a taijutsu style. Naruto had seen the various styles that are common to Iwa, and in his infinite brilliance decided he would try his hand at making one. To his benefit though, he had the clarity of mind to not make it much more complicated than a base stance and a few katas. Eventually, he had found out that the base stance he had taken for his style was really flexible, allowing for much more movement than the Academy's style.

That was another problem altogether. He had tried to start working on his own style of taijutsu only to occasionally notice himself slipping out of it and begin making Academy moves. It took liberal amounts of Shadow Clones, but he eventually got to the point where he didn't have to worry about slipping into any other stance.

During the first three months, Naruto had focused on trying to stick several objects onto his body, which he learned was a basic chakra control exercise in Konoha. While he wished he didn't have to use an enemies' exercise, he couldn't deny that it did its job. After the first three months, that exercise had brought his chakra control to the level that an academy student could be proud of. He still had slight trouble producing a bunshin, but he could now make one that didn't look like it would keel over at any moment.

After that the dams burst, and Naruto had started learning at a pace that amazed others. Over the course of a week Naruto had gotten the basics of water walking down, and by the end of another week, he could do it as if it was second nature. He had even learnt some basic jutsu, along with the shunshin. For some reason, he had the easiest time learning the shunshin; whether it was because he was awesome, or if it was just a really easy jutsu most genin never bothered to learn, he didn't know.

He had also started on some rudimentary wind chakra manipulation techniques that he had read about in the book he had received for his birthday. It had taken him four months to start to cut the leaf, and after that he had cut the leaf entirely in only another month. It was during one of these training exercises that Naruto met the Kyuubi.

- Flashback No Jutsu! –

Naruto was exhausted. He had been training for how long now? 'I think it's been about six hours now…' The child thought as he watched the scene in front of him. In front of the child were thirty other children, each an exact copy of the blond child who created them. 'That scroll that man dropped really came in handy; otherwise I don't think I would've gotten this stuff down in even twice as long as it took…'

After about five minutes of watching the Kage Bunshins cut into their leaves, Naruto got up and dusted himself off. He looked towards his clones "Alright guys" He barked "Time to dispel!" When all of them dispelled at once, it felt like he had run head-first into a wall. "Whoa… That doesn't feel good." He swayed woozily only to fall over, unconscious.

- Mindscape –

Naruto woke up, soaked from head to toe on one side of body in what seemed like sewage. "Not only do I hurt, but now I smell like garbage, isn't my day just great?" Getting up, Naruto took some time to take in his surroundings. Coming up to his ankles was some liquid, Naruto didn't know nor did he want to know. Surrounding him was a veritable maze of pipes and hallways, all leading out from where he was standing. Occasionally a hiss of pressurized water would jet out from one of the pipes, but other than that they were completely silent.

Every few seconds, Naruto would feel a jet of warm air wash over him, blanketing him in a fleeting heat. 'Where is that coming from?' Setting his target, Naruto went down the hallway he thought the warm air was coming from.

For what seemed like hours, Naruto followed the hallway, turning this way and that, and every few seconds, he would feel that rush of air that seemed to cling to him ever so slightly longer each and every time it rushed by. After a long while, Naruto came upon an open area, so large it could fit the Tsuchikage tower and still have room to do whatever you wanted in it.

"Whoa, this is a big… What're those bars for?" Noticing the colossal columns that were hidden in the shadows, as another rush of air jetted past him, its origin became obvious to the blonde.

'So this is where that warm air is coming from...I wonder what's making it?' Stepping forward, Naruto noticed he couldn't see what was past the bars, only to feel another blast of warm air wash over him.

Hoping that whatever it was that was making that warm air was friendly, Naruto called out. "Hello? Is anybody out there? I'm lost and I don't know where I am…" Only to be flung back when a claw twice the size of him slammed into his frame.

"**Puny human, interrupting my sleep. If I could actually harm you, you would be dead by now." **The most venomous and malicious voice Naruto had ever heard responded.

Naruto was stunned; he had just been thrown what? Fifteen feet? He didn't feel any pain, but that sensation made him dizzy. "That was… Fun. Could you do that again, without the whole 'I will destroy you, puny human ' Shpeal?" Silence reigned for a few seconds, and Naruto has a sneaking suspicion that whatever it was behind those columns did not expect him to say that.

"**… You are a strange kit, do you know that?"**

Was the delayed response. Naruto took it in stride "Yeah, I know. My mom tells me that every day."

**" I had a whole speech set up for you when you finally got here, just so I could instill in you the fear that you should feel by seeing me, but that just made me forget it."**

Naruto gave an about face **"**Really? Did I surprise you that much?" Another blast of air greeted the blonde.

**"Usually when I hit people with my claw, they don't get back up, nor are they in once piece, so yes, you surprised me. Congratulations, do you want a prize? **

"Just want to know who you are."

**"Kyuubi, but you can call me Kurama." **

"You're funny; I thought you just said you were the Kyuubi."

**"I AM the Kyuubi, but like I said before, you can call me Kurama, be grateful kit, I only allow people who I think are worth it call me that name." **

"Excuse me out as I pass… *Thump*"

**"Uhh….Kit, are you okay?"**...** "Kit? Kit!? Kit! GET THE FUCK UP NOW!" (3)**

"What mom? I'm up…Oh, sorry."

**"Sometimes, I wonder if the Shinigami knew you would be this strange. It's like you're a mini-me. But anyway, onto business. I called you here because I think it's time you know your heritage, seeing as how you will pass the genin exam." **

"I don't know, this really is a lot to take in, I mean, what if you're using me to do things according to your agenda?"

**"Kit, if there's something you need to know about me; it's that while humans may think I'm the living embodiment of rage, I'm actually the most patient of Bijuu. If I wanted to do something concerning your worthless race, I would wait until I formed again in your world after you died and then do it." **

"Oh."

**"Exactly, this is why you don't need to worry. Anyway, I'm doing this because I think it's funny, that the people who you think are allies are actually your natural enemies. Rather poetic, isn't it?"**

This threw Naruto for a loop. Who were his 'Natural Enemies'? Who were his 'allies'? From what Kurama was saying, he was somehow fraternizing with the enemy, who were they the enemies of? Naruto was confused, and he expressed this rather eloquently.

"What?"

**"Okay, I'll make this really easy on you. Be prepared, this is a lot of information, entirely true by the way. But you must make an oath to never tell anyone you know what I'm about to tell you, seeing as how this is what I think are what you call S-rank secrets?" **The Kyuubi sniffed the air around him, and sent a glare towards Naruto, making him involuntarily shiver.

"**You know what, I changed my mind, when you pass the genin exam I'll tell you everything you want to know. Here's something to get your juices flowing."**

Naruto waited whatever Kurama was about to say with a hitched breath. Never in his life would he expect what he was about to hear.

**"You're adopted."**

"What?" Was Naruto's ever so sophisticated response. Another blast of air washed over the blonde

**"Listen, and listen well, okay? I speak the truth, you are adopted; the parent you have now isn't your biological one, and she is a civilian. Your real parents were ninja, and exceptional ninja at that. By genealogy alone, you are the only person alive who can actually claim to be worthy of being my Jinchuuriki. Again, the irony that you of course would never even get the choice is bittersweet, no?**

Naruto was silent for a few moments, before he looked out into the darkness,

"Hey Kurama, why are you hiding in the shadows?" He waited a few seconds for the answer.

**"Well, I'm pretty sure that to a kid like you, the sight of an approximately fifty foot tall fox chakra construct would be terrifying, right?"**

Naruto nodded, his face going white with the images that came forth when Kurama referenced himself. "Is it possible for you to take another form?" Silence once again reigned for a few moments before another rush of warm air blanketed to child.

**"I'll see what I can do, but do be prepared, I'll need to release some of my power that I've been holding back to take another form."**

Right afterwards Naruto felt like he had been dumped into a lake of ice with a tonne of rocks strapped to his back. 'What is this...? Is this Kurama? This is only some of his power?' The sensation only lasted for a split second, but it was enough time to let Naruto know just who he was talking to.

"Kurama, where are you?

**"I'm right here, Naruto."**

The voice sounded different, but Naruto knew it was Kurama. Where what he had assumed to be Kurama nine tailed form's voice was full of malcontent, this voice was softer, only a slightly deep baritone, and oozed with power and grace. Coming out of the darkness in front of Naruto was a figure, dressed in deep red hooded robes, the color reminded Naruto of blood. What was especially striking about this form of Kurama was that even though his entire face was shadowed, Naruto could still plainly see his eyes, which were also that same dark, crimson red that colored his robes. Naruto could not anything other than the robes and his eyes, but that was fine with him; he wasn't one to judge a book by its cover.

"You look pretty cool in that get-up, especially since your robes match your eyes… That sounded a little too girly, didn't it?" Naruto couldn't help but smile sheepishly. Kurama, however, just sighed and continued on where he left off

**"Barring that effeminate response, thank you Naruto. Anyway, back to the subjects of your real parents, as much as you think that my actions have an ulterior motive, I feel obliged to tell you why they were so powerful. Don't worry, I will tell you who they are after you pass the genin exam, but I thought you might like to know that both of your parents were experts of fuinjutsu, or the sealing arts."**

Naruto was a little confused, he knew what fuinjutsu was from his time at the academy, but he was never really interested in what it exactly consisted of until now. "Really? How good were they?"

**"I'll tell you how good they were after you beat the genin exams." **

"Is there any way that I can get started on learning fuinjutsu?" Kurama understood exactly what Naruto meant by this. Since Naruto knew that his parents were dead, the reasons unknown to him right now, he thought that he would honor their lives by learning the art of fuinjutsu, which was what Kurama had anticipated would happen. **"There is, but there are some hoops for you to jump through, and it may take a very long time until you are able to actually start learning fuinjutsu, especially since it's not an art that is easily learned through shadow clones."**

While anyone else would be downtrodden at having their only training method being moot for something, Naruto grinned foxily.

"That just makes it better, don't you think? If I can't do this without the help of my clones, then I'm not doing my parent's justice right?" If anything, this made Kurama excited. Maybe his jailor could do what he needed to do...

With an even foxier smile than the one Naruto gave, Kurama looked at the child. **"Kit, I think this is the beginning of a great friendship..."**

-Flashback No Jutsu Kai!-

BZZZT. BZZZZT. BZZZT. SMACK.

"OW! My hand! Stupid alarm clock! Just shut up and die!" This was the average morning ritual for Naruto now. Wake up to really loud alarm, smack alarm, almost injure hand, proceed to glare and murmur death threats at aforementioned alarms clock. "Today's the day of the genin exam, hopefully I'll pass."

Iwa's genin exams; while nothing bloodthirsty like Kiri's, or as lax as Konoha's; was hard unless you knew what you were doing. Naruto knew what the genin exam was going to entail: A test, which he would probably fail because even now he just couldn't handle them. Next would be the practicals, which meant taijutsu. He was sure he was going to pass that, even if his clones didn't increase his physical strength and dexterity, it still provided him with muscle memory, which was really what he needed. After that was the ninjutsu section, which meant the basic three: Bunshin, Kawarimi, and Henge. He was pretty sure we could get this, especially if he could switch out his regular Bunshin with a Kage bunshin. Putting on his clothes after a quick shower, Naruto was on his way to the Academy.

**"Hey kit, who do you think are going to be on your team?"** Kurama had taken a liking to this cerebral communication (A/N note: That just rolls off the tongue doesn't it?) that had somehow been unlocked after their first meeting. Of course, Kurama had gotten lonely, and over the last few months had taken to pestering Naruto whenever he wasn't busy with anything important. It was during these conversations, that Naruto had found out that Kurama could sense what was going on outside through the seal, but nothing much other than that. It was also during one of these conversations that Naruto learned of his homeland: Konohagakure.

'I don't know man, but I hope I get some strong people to hang around with, or at least to train with. I really want to get stronger, and Yumi-sensei told me this is how you do it'.

After continuing to converse this way for several minutes until Naruto arrived at the Academy. He followed the path he always took when he went to his classroom and opened the sliding door to reveal that he was one of the last few to arrive. As soon as he sat down the bell rang.

"Alright guys, today's the day that you stop learning how to be a ninja, and _become_ a ninja. I won't bore you with one of the heartfelt speeches that every other instructor is giving, but I _will_ give you a warning." After letting the class calm stop murmuring, she continued.

"Some of you just aren't cut out for being a ninja, some of you are. But there is one thing that connects us all: Death. Death comes to everyone, no matter who you are, but the thing that separates us is what we do when our time comes. If you run away, I won't judge you; it's simply natural to run away from death, since we have a natural fear of it. When I first come face to face with death, I ran. You could also buck up to it, which - Yumi gave a _very_ pointed look in Naruto's direction – is stupid, but I still wouldn't judge you; some ninja cope with their lives by treating each day as their last."

Yumi looked at her students, deep in thought. "What I'm trying to say is… Is that it doesn't matter when or where you died, what matters… Is how you die." Looking at her students who shared the same somber look she had, she continued.

"After that, I would like to introduce to you a student who was away for a while, but is back to take the exams. Kurotsuchi, could you come in?

After the cue, walked in one of, if not the most beautiful girl Naruto had ever seen. She had quasi-short hair the colour of burnt chestnuts, flowing carelessly around her chin. Her face's natural beauty was accentuated by this, and seemed to glow with the youth she possessed. After staring at her face for several seconds, he shifted his gaze to her eyes, and was taken back; her eyes were pink! With a blush the same color as the eyes he was staring at, he was shocked when their eyes met and she gasped out loud.

"Naruto! Is that you?" She then proceeded to run over to Naruto and tackle him to the floor. "You big meanie! You never even said goodbye!" This was said _while _she was on the floor, 'tackling' Naruto, and crying into his chest at the same time. Once again, Naruto's ever so sophisticated side took over.

"What?"

"What do you mean, _'What_'?" She chided. "You know darn well what I'm mad at you for, you big jerk."

Naruto started to become a little irritated, and gently pushed the girl on top of him off. "I'm not sure if you are mistaking me for someone else, but I certainly don't remember you." 'Which is strange, because I usually remember pretty girls' Naruto finished in his head. It was strange though, the feeling he got when he looked at this girl, it was an uncomfortable sinking in his stomach, like he _should _know this girl.

Kurotsuchi was taken back. "…You really don't remember do you?" She started to get up. "Well then, I would appreciate this if we both forgot this happened…" At Naruto's nod, she continued to the back of the classroom. The class, meanwhile, was silent the entire time this had gone on. Not only did the Tsuchikage's daughter come to this class, but evidently Naruto has some sort of connection to her. Only after the silence has stretched for more than half a minute did Yumi speak up. "Okay kids, let's get to the test…"

One Test Later

Naruto felt like he passed that test. It wasn't too hard, but he was just a small bit distracted. Luckily, he had evaded a rather embarrassing situation when it turned out that Kurotsuchi was to sit in pretty much the opposite corner that he did. But other than that, he was happy with how he performed. 'Now's the time for the practicals… I wonder how they're going to do this.'

**'More than likely by pitting you against an instructor, no doubt.'**

"Well, bring it on then!" Naruto exclaimed out loud, and just a tad bit too loudly, earning him some looks of surprise. "Sorry, got ahead of myself. Anyway Yumi-sensei, what are doing for the practicals?"

Said instructor looked down at Naruto. "Well, we are going to be setting you up against an instructor to test your taijutsu skills."

Naruto nodded sagely "Indeed, as I had expected." Finishing the conversation, Naruto followed Yumi until they reached an area outside the Academy, and then sat down, knowing that he was going to be near the end of the test.

As students were called up, the reason for the instructors being at least the rank of chunin became apparent. If the Academy instructors were not of at least Chunin rank, it might be possible for the students to tire them out, seeing as how technically, there is little difference between an Academy student and a Genin. As each student got to pretty much show off what they had learned, several people stood out. Fu managed to come to a near draw with her instructor, which was unsurprising seeing as how she was second in the class as far as taijutsu went.

'Seems like I wasn't the only one training over the last year…' Naruto thought with a bit of hope. 'Maybe we'll be on the same team.'

**'She certainly seems strong, but I personally think you could do better.' **

'Not right now fox, I have to focus on how these kids fight. I'll be with two of them soon enough.'

It was at this moment that Naruto was called up. "Naruto, come up onto the stage please."

The students watching the matches so far had become quiet, intent on seeing just how good the person who was best at taijutsu in their class _really_ was.

"Who'll I be facing?" Naruto asked Yumi.

She looked around, and got a small pout on her face. "I knew he would be late, but oh well. If you can wait a few moments, I'll let him introduce himself."

Naruto, not really understanding where she was going with this, just nodded and stood there waiting. It was about half a minute until a small explosion of dust signaled the appearance of a man.

"So who's this runt I have to beat up on, Yumi? You know I don't usually do favors like this, yeah?" Out of the dust came a man who looked to be about sixteen, with a ponytail of blonde hair comparable to Naruto's running down to his shoulders. He also had on the rank-and-file Iwa Chunin flak jacket, with its many pockets and brown color scheme. "So this is him, yeah? He's a bit…shorter than I thought he would be."

Not one to back down from a fight, Naruto looked up at Yumi.

"Who is this Yumi? You know I don't like fighting girls." Completely ignoring the other blondes outburst of "You little runt! I am a man!" Yumi replied.

"Well Naruto, I know you are extremely proficient at taijutsu, so I decided to call in a favor and get you somebody to fight who is extremely proficient at dodging." Finally understanding what was going on Naruto cracked his knuckles, signaling his ascension. At the same time, the other blonde gave a feral smile.

"Time to kick some transsexual ass!"

"I'll show you how fun art is, yeah!"

Yumi stepped up into the ring of beaten earth "Hajime!" After that everything was like lightning. Naruto started it off with a charge straight into the other blonde, almost knocking him off-balance. The larger blonde retaliated with a shove that forced Naruto onto a knee on the ground, and then flipped away. Taking a breath, the man looked at Naruto quizzically.

"My name's Deidara, is yours stupid or something? Don't ever charge straight in, yeah."

Only for Naruto to stand up and grin ear-to-ear "My name's Naruto and I'll be kicking your ass today!" He started off in another charge while he was saying this, only to see Deidara smirking as his foolishness.

"What did I just tell you? Don't charge straight ahead, yeah!" Just to be surprised when Naruto went into a slide, right between Deidara's legs, sweeping them out from under him.

"That was nice, but it was really slow, I could've dodged that if I wanted to." This got on Naruto's nerves. No matter what, he never liked being underestimated.

At seeing the rising anger in the younger blonde, Deidara looked at Yumi. "And this is your best at taijutsu? I can kinda understand, I didn't exactly expect for him to slide like that. He's unpredictable, I'll give him that. But other than that, he just average."

Yumi looked at Deidara like a mother chiding her child. "Dei-chan, what have I told you about judging a book by its cover?" Deidara shrugged nonchalantly, oblivious to what Naruto was doing.

Naruto was tired of being ignored. "Hey man-girl, are you done chatting? I'd really like to have an actual fight now." And with that, he crossed his fingers and with a poof of smoke, two more Narutos appeared. All of the students were stunned into silence, knowing that Naruto had just something incredibly stupid. Yumi and Deidara, on the other hand, narrowed their eyes. 'How did he learn that jutsu...?'

Deidara turned to look at the small blonde ahead of him "Okay kid, you have my attention. Let's see what you can do with those clones of yours…" The roles were switched as Deidara charged forward towards Naruto, who looked at his clones and both jumped away. Naruto's clone knew exactly what was needed of him, and went into a mad dash at Deidara, meaning to keep him busy for a few moments for Naruto to concoct a plan.

"Weren't you just saying something about charging straight ahead?"

"I don't need to listen to my own advice against a weakling like you!"

"Damn, you bastard! I'll teach you who a weakling!"

"You can't even touch me, how are you going to teach me a lesson if you can't hit me?"

Naruto was watching as the clone he made tried as well as he could to make some time for the real Naruto. 'How to beat this guy… He has the advantage, I've already shown him my trick, I have yet to see his. Speaking of tricks, it looks like he's just trying to dodge instead of attacking…' He was, as well. Naruto decided to try to get a really good look at Deidara hands, trying to figure out why the blonde wasn't hitting back, when he saw that both of his hands had small mouths on them.

"Bloody hell? What are those things on your hands! Is that why you're not attacking?"

Deidara looked at the real Naruto, and while dodging the clone's attacks, replied. "These… Are my aces up my sleeve, if you will? I use these as a last resort, and I'm still not good with them, even if I've had them all my life, yeah? The reason why I'm not attacking back…Is because I see no need to. You haven't shown me that you deserve to be hit yet."

It was at this moment that the clone got a lucky hit on Deidara; a snap kick to the knee that sent Deidara tumbling to the side. "What was that yeah? That's not normal Academy taijutsu…"

Naruto scoffed at this. "Of course man-girl, I've been working on making my own taijutsu style for about a year now; and with the help of a unique training method I'd like to say I'm pretty good at it!" The clone then went into a stance that felt like second nature to him, but looked extremely foreign to everyone else. It consisted of the clone positioning himself so that he was perpendicular to his enemy, slimming the target of any attacks. He then put his left palm out; his elbow bent at nearly forty five degrees, and kept his right palm tucked into his body, ready to strike at any opening. He shuffled his feet so that they were several feet apart, and began jumping very lightly from one foot to another. (4) Deidara had never seen any style like this before, so he was unsure of how to proceed. Turning to Yumi, he looked for an answer. Yumi merely shrugged, signaling she was just as confused. Turning back to the clone, Deidara began.

"That looks like a nice stance… What do you call it?"

Naruto's clone smiled foxily. "I haven't given it a name yet, and this is the first time I've tried it out in a real fight!"

Taking the exclamation as a cue, the clone jumped forward, dashing with adroitness unseen so far, and thrusted his right palm into Deidara's stomach, only for the man to shoot backwards into a roll. Executing a roll of his own, Naruto kicked out as he came up, surprising the larger blonde and scoring a graze on his right shoulder.

"Damn, you actually got me… But no more, now I'm going to hit back!"

Naruto smirked once again. "I doubt you could even – guh!" Only to be grappled and thrown a foot back. In another switch of roles, they both executed a roll, but Naruto pushed off the ground with his hands at the last moment, flying up into the air and somersaulting to land feet first. After stopping to look at the boy who so far had been on par with a chunin, Deidara decided to up the ante.

"Okay kid, you want some whoop ass? Here's some whoop ass!"

As Deidara charged forward, forgetting completely his currently hypocritical advice, Naruto returned to his original stance.

'Okay Naruto, you only have one chance to do this, wait until he is about to attack, and then strike…' Deidara continued to charge, gaining ground increasingly fast

'Almost there' Deidara was only about ten feet out.

'…almost' Five feet.

'…NOW!'

As Deidara went to throw what most assuredly would've been a knockout punch, Naruto ducked, struck out with his right palm against the other blonde's shoulder, grabbed the arm that was punching him, and twisted his body so that he was underneath Deidara. Then with a great heave, he threw.

"…" Was the response of all people present as they had just seen an Academy student throw a chunin a few feet through the air.

"Well, how was that for some whoop ass, huh?" Naruto yelled out in triumph. Deidara slowly got up to his feet, his vision spinning wildly as he did so.

"You've…Got a good arm there kiddo… What did you say your name was again?" Naruto cheekily shot back

"Naruto Tobayame, the kid who just kicked your ass!"

"Okay guys, let's finish up the taijutsu spars and head over to the ninjutsu field so we can finish this test." Yumi's voice rang out, restoring order and making everything seem like just another day in the Academy. After finishing up with the rest of the spars, Yumi led the classroom through a small thicket of forests into an even bigger clearing than before.

"Okay, students, the ninjutsu portion of the exam will be here. You are to show us all three Academy Basics, and any other jutsu you have managed to learn during your education here."

Deidara walked over to where Yumi was standing and leaned in "What do you think we should do about that Naruto kid? He doesn't feel…right. I don't know why, but I noticed it during our fight, there was just something about him that felt… off."

Yumi sighed "I guess we watch him from the shadows for now, I guess. I always knew he was going to be a bit different, but learning such an advanced jutsu before he graduates? And one that originated in Konoha of all things? How did he even get to learn it? He might as well have some more tricks in store for us."

Deidara nodded, and stepped to the outskirts of the clearing. "What I want to know is why he has enough chakra to do it."

XxX

The ninjutsu portion passed just like the taijutsu portion, with Naruto not really caring, nor noticing how the others did, until Fu and Kurotsuchi came up. Naruto only noticed those two because they exhibited extra jutsu. From what he heard, Fu did the Housenka No Jutsu, which was shooting balls of fire out of her mouth, while Kurotsuchi did some jutsu where she disappeared underground, and pulled a small branch to wherever she was. If Naruto heard right, the jutsu had something to do with a fish. 'What a strange name for a jutsu…'

Eventually Naruto was called up, and with hitched breath, the crowd of students watched as the blonde cracked various parts of his body and then strung together a very small series of hand seals. After all the training he had been doing over the course of the year, those chakra exercises had made channeling chakra an insanely easier process. He still had to focus, but his chakra listened to him at least. In rapid succession he performed a Kage bunshin, executed the Kawarimi with said bunshin, and then Henged into a small tree. After a few minutes of the classroom looking for the blonde, he poofed into existence, scaring a student who was directly to Naruto's right. Naruto walked out into the center of the ring and with an air of cockiness, smiled. "Hey, Yumi-sensei, wanna see something cool?"

With another short series of hand seals and a shallow breath, Naruto exhaled a large plume of smoke, which obscured his body from view. Then after few more moments, the smoke was whisked away by a small breeze from within only to reveal a very hazy form of Naruto standing there. (5)

"I have no names for these jutsu yet, but they're pretty cool aren't they?" Yumi was stunned. The ingenuity this child possessed was something else entirely. She could tell that the smoke he exhaled was just under formed fire element chakra, but to use it as an actual jutsu when most people thought of it as a failure? Then there was the other jutsu he used. She couldn't tell if it had an element to it, but it seemed as if he was just pouring his chakra out around him, blanketing him in it. It didn't even look like it fazed him at all, and yet she could _feel_ the chakra just pouring out of him, and she was an easy thirty feet away.

'Amazing…Is this a Kekai Genkai? I'll need to go to the Tsuchikage about this, see if he knows what it's about…'

"Okay Naruto, that's enough, you pass."

"YATTA" Naruto exclaimed, jumping around the field like with reckless abandon.

Yumi continued to call up students, and afterwards looked to the students who had passed. "Okay students, Go to the gymnasium to receive your headbands. After that, return to my room for squad assignments." With a rush of feet, the students were gone. Deidara walked with Yumi towards her classroom.

"The kid is going to be big; I just know it, yeah."

Yumi laughed lightly. "Of course he will be since he climbed the Great Ironwood Tree after all."

Deidara's jaw nearly hit the floor. "That was _that_ kid? No wonder he surprised me."

Yumi laughed again, slightly louder this time "Come on Dei-Chan, we need to get to class."

-Half an hour later-

After everyone had received their headband, they went back into the classroom, chatting with friends they might never see again. After everyone had settled into their seats and were finished speaking, Yumi spoke up.

"Okay kids, time for your squad assignments."

XxX

**{Omake}**

"It-itai! Baa-chan, I get it, no elbows on the table…

"Darn tootin' no elbows on the table. That's one of the first thing you need to remember every time you eat. It shows that you understand that the place where you eat demands a different respect from you than any other place in the house."

"Come on Kaa-chan, the boy's just being a boy. He's only what… 8?"

"You shut your mouth Gamahiro; you know damn well why he needs to be taught this. What if he finds a girl he wants to marry, but his love is unrequited because of his poor manners?"

"That's a little extreme Kaa-chan. And swearing isn't a good influence on him anyway."

"Everyone has their vices Gama-koi. Mine is just a little more vulgar than yours."

Naruto just looked at the conversing people in front of him. His baa-chan, who he had just figured out was here to introduce him to the pits of hell, was a small thing even compared to him. It made him wonder how short he was going to be when he was that old.

Gamahiro, on the other hand, was a verifiable giant in comparison. Standing at nearly 187 centimeters tall, he loomed over the other two in the room like a god. Even more so, his well-muscled appearance only helped him with that image; his bulging muscles showing even through his thicker than average clothing, due to the weather.

Over the last week he had been introduced to the horror show that is "Teaching Naruto Manners With Setsuna-Baa-chan and Gamahiro-koi!" How his grandma even thought that making this disaster of a winter break into a series of 'fun' shows worried him. He was currently in the last 'episode' the table manners episode. He had to say that whatever they were teaching him was worth it though, as he really noticed a change in how people viewed him when he would apologize for things he did. Evidently other 8 year olds didn't do that.

Maybe another upside to it was the conversations he was privy to. He had to say, that his grandma and uncle could probably make it as a comedy duet if they wanted to. But that was beside the point; even if they were funny, it cut into the time it took to teach him these 'manners', and inevitably caused him to lose time to do whatever he wanted, which irked him.

"Hopefully this wouldn't go on for too much longer…"

"Yeah?! How about I teach you some manners in season two with Naruto then? It sure seems like you could use some you lazy bum."

"Season two!? Oh my goooooood." (6)

Author's Rant:

1: I'm so sorry about the usage of flashbacks in this chapter, but it was needed. I find that I can explain things better through flashbacks. That being said, I doubt it would be like the anime flashbacks, where it's a flashback to something from two episodes ago.

2: I hope you guys know your game symbols, because if you don't, what is your deal?

3: I was going for a very Metal Gear-esque yelling, but I didn't want to type it all out. To be honest, I couldn't really resist the chance to make the Kyuubi yell like it; it's just too funny.

4: This stance may seem familiar to another you guys might be familiar with, but I assure you it's not. What I was basing this off was Jose's fighting stance from Dead or Alive 3 with a few modifications. That being said, I more than likely won't make this description of his stance again. I'll just type something like "He got into his style's stance" and reference this note, or something.

5: Okay, so I'm super guilty guys. I included these jutsu, but they aren't mine. They are actually from the author Telemicus Sundance, one of the best authors of this site. At the time of writing this, he has not been online for years, so I'm taking liberty. If his online status changes, I will seek his approval.

6: If you can get the reference, I'll personally acknowledge you on my next chapter as an honourable mention. Because you'd deserve it for being that awesome.

**Just a warning for you guys, if you want to stop reading here you can. After this is just some reasons why Naruto is the way he is, as well as some explanation about the environment he's in. That being said, if you want to hear some opinions and learn a little bit more about my world, read on.**

Okay, I think this chapter was pretty good, but I know there are most likely some plot holes that you guys are thinking about, most likely 'What about the ANBU squads going to get Naruto back?' or "Why is Konoha and Iwa not in another war because of this?"

I can't answer those questions in this rant, because they are brought up in later chapters, but just know that I know what to do with them.

I CAN however, make sure you understand some of the things I put in the last few chapters.

Although it hasn't been exploited yet, Naruto is a genius. While my reasons may not be true to my story, I believe that the logic still applies. Here are my reasons for this:

a. Not only does he escape from chunnin, Jonin, and the occasional ANBU after pulling his pranks, but he does it MULTIPLE times, each time only being found by one person: Iruka.

b. The Sandaime Hokage enrolled Naruto into the Ninja Academy two years before anybody else enrolled, meaning that if Naruto had actually passed the Genin Exam the first time, he would be in a team with two other people two years his senior. This leads to reason C:

c. Naruto failed his first two exams with the intention of making sure he did just that: fail. He knew that anybody older than him would have an unconditional hate of him for some reason and because of that , Naruto thought it would be better to graduate with people his age, so that he could influence them and show them he was not dangerous or worthy of hate.

And why I had Yumi help Naruto with his Katon training:

1) I've always felt like Naruto was being gypped whenever he got training. The reason for me thinking this is that whenever he does get somebody to train him, they always go on about how bad his chakra control is or how he needs to be able to control the Kyuubi before he can do cool things. I intend to make sure that his teachers HELP him with things like chakra control instead of just complaining about it.

2) I feel that in every different country, the education system is different. Therefore, I decided that in Iwa, students learn about their elemental affinity during the fourth year of their academy career. This gives them the advantage of knowing which jutsus will work best for them, and which won't.

3) Since Iwa's education system makes students learning about their elemental affinity imperative, it would follow logic to conclude that training to control their elemental affinity chakra would be just as important. Since Naruto has no ninja is his family, it fell upon Yumi to teach him.

Also, just as a point of reference, as you can already see, Naruto is not a super genius like Itachi or Kakashi, but to give you an idea into just how far ahead of everybody else his age he is, he is currently 9 while the other students in Yumi's class are currently 11-13.

I hope you enjoy the chapters, and I forgot to put this in any of my other chapters but…

I don't own Naruto.

Oh! Before I forget, I just know some of you guys are going to be wondering how Naruto got the beat on with Deidara. I can tell you that it was a combination of three things in order of importance: 1) Naruto's natural inclination towards taijutsu. 2) Deidara didn't think that Naruto would have a taijutsu style that was different than what the academy taught. 3) Naruto is extremely lucky.

With that, I'll leave you until I upload the next chapter, which may or may not come early, depending on the reception of this chapter. Remember, I still have a set schedule for a reason; these chapters are pretty hard to get out if I need to keep the volume consistent. Anyways, you guys have a great day, and keep on being awesome.  
Stay Thirsty,  
TimTheeEnchanter


	4. My Parents

Hello everyone! Here with another really early update! If I keep writing like this, then I might have to end up changing my upload schedule! I bet you guys would enjoy that wouldn't you!

Naruto Of Iwa Chapter 4  
Title: My Parents

"Team one is still in operation… Team two will consist of Naruto Tobayame, Fu Toba, and Kurotsuchi Orime…"

Naruto stopped listening as soon as his team was announced. He couldn't say he was happy; even though he had what seemed to be strong teammates, he didn't have the best relationship with Fu, not to mention the other girl. He sighed. "This'll be quite a bit of work." He gave a cursory glance around the classroom and noticed that both of his teammates were looking at him. He gave each of them a weak wave and then set his head down on the desk, set on taking a small nap.

**"Hey kit…Can you hear me? I have to talk to you about things…" **

'What is it...?'

**"Just wanted to let you know that you father is a bastard, and your mom was a very angry women." **

'I sort of forgot that you were gonna tell me who my real parents were. Mind spilling the beans already? I really want to sleep before I meet my sensei.'

**"Fair enough kit. What do you know of the Hokages?"**

'Those old goats? Mostly what was in the history books, that they were peace loving fools addicted to power, and that they stole several clans from Iwa to form their village: Konohagakure?'

**"Half true kit. They weren't addicted to power; they just were born with the most potential for power, like I was. It takes a very unique person to realize this as the way it is. But that's an aside. What do you know specifically about the Yondaime?"**

Naruto didn't understand where the fox was going with this, but answered anyway.

'I know that he single-handedly destroyed a contingent of Iwa soldiers in the last war, he created a devastating jutsu called Hirashin, and he was the only ninja to ever have an SS-rank and flee on sight order. Recently he defeated the Kyuubi… at the cost of his…life… Aren't you the Kyuubi?'

Kurama snorted. **"Yes, I am the Kyuubi. I'll explain that to you in a small while. All that you've heard about the Yondaime is a half-truth. While he was an exceedingly talented ninja, he did not create the Hirashin, it was his bloodline limit. He created a different jutsu, while not as potentially destructive as Hirashin; it was a feared jutsu all the same: the Rasengan. But that's not what I wanted to talk about. What I want to talk about was the Yondaime. His dying breaths to me were "Teach my son how to be a true ninja, so that one day he may come to understand why I did what I did." Do you believe that? As I tore into the flesh of his ninja; as I crushed under my heel the village he held dear, all he cared about was his son: You. I'll let you think about that for a few moments"**

Naruto was floored. He was the son of what had been the "monster under the bed" of all of Iwa's ninja force? Why was the Kyuubi here of all things? What did he have to do with this situation? He didn't even know what to feel at a time like this, when you're told by the most powerful of bijuu that your _father_ had been the one to put it in you?

Kurama snorted again.** "I can tell you're confused. I happen to think that the only way to get rid of a hangover is to drink more alcohol, so I'll tell you why I'm here. The Yondaime-teme couldn't actually kill me; nobody alive today could. What he did was the next best thing: he sealed me. I'll tell you right off, sealing is a very dangerous toy to play with. You may not have been told this yet, but even though you've been practicing calligraphy for a year now, it'll take a few more years of you getting your handwriting just right for you to start fuinjutsu, unless you use that amazing training method of yours." **Kurama made what seemed to be a cross between a snort and a growl. **"Dammit, I need to stop going on tangents. Anyway, he sealed me into the only thing can actually contain my chakra and keep it locked: a child. So whose child would be better than his own? While the irony may be lost on you, the altruism shouldn't. It's pretty shocking huh? To be the holder of the most powerful being on the planet? Don't answer; I know it's a 'yes'. " **

Naruto was even more confused now. The emotions and thoughts swirling around in his head made him dizzy. So he did what he usually did in situations like these: he pushed the feelings and thoughts to the back of his head and would reflect on them at a later date. But one single question stuck out in his head.

'Why am I in Iwa? Shouldn't I be in Konoha?'

Kurama huffed.** "I'm impressed kid. You have some great clarity of thought, it would be hard to see focus like that in a twenty year old. As to why you're not in Konoha, I'll tell you straight out: You don't want to know. I personally don't feel like telling you, because even if you can get rid of a hangover by drinking more, you still run the risk of being poisoned." **After that, nothing was said.

XxX

"…Ruto…Naruto….Naruto….NARUTO!"

Naruto shot up. "What mom? I'm up!"

Only to see that he wasn't in his bedroom, and that his teammates were stepping back, more than likely they had been the ones to wake him up. "Sorry about that…" Naruto grinned sheepishly, his right hand rubbing the back of his neck.

"Whatever" Kurotsuchi blurted out "We need to be on the roof in five minutes." The she turned around and quickly walked out of the room.

"Come on" Fu nodded her head in the general direction of the stairs "We need to head out now. He told us to be there three minutes ago."

-2 minutes later-

"Those stairs were never that long before…" Naruto huffed out, slightly winded. He was sure there were only seven steps per staircase, and he counted three-hundred sixty-seven steps before he reached the top of the building, which was three stories high.

"About time you showed up here, and great job on not catching that weak genjutsu I cast on the stairs." A voice directly ahead of Fu and Naruto caught their attention, making both of them look up from the ground. In front of them was easily one of the most intimidating men Naruto had ever seen. Standing an ungodly 6' 7", and with a standard issue flak jacket that both chunin and jonin alike wore, pants made from a sturdy material that Naruto couldn't readily place that were the colour of moss agate, and a face mask that covered anything below his eyes, the man looked like a killer. The man walked around Fu and Naruto and closed the door behind them. "Now then, while we are paying attention, let's get introductions out of the way. Usually the sensei goes first, but I don't feel like doing and introduction right now… So you, Kurotsuchi, introduce yourself."

The pink-eyed girl started at being called on first, but took a deep breath and began. "My name is Kurotsuchi Orime, I like ramen, barbeque beef, and tempura, along with training, and putting perverts in their place." She looked up towards the sky, her head resting in her hand "…I dislike perverts, people who underestimate me, and those who betray their friends." Finishing up, she looked at the instructor who was motioning with his hands to continue on. "What else do you want me to say?"

"What about your dreams for the future?"

"Oh, I want to be the best Kage there has ever been, or ever will be!"

With a great flourishing leap, Kurotsuchi finished her introduction. The giant of a man continued to Fu. "You, Fu, introduce yourself." Fu took a step forward and bowed towards her teammates.

"My name is Fu Toba, I like training, reading, and jutsu theory. I also dislike perverts, those who betray their friends, as well as those who demand respect without giving it first." She looked down on the ground, obviously thinking about what she was going to say next "My dream for the future?...I'm not exactly sure, but I would like to have a family one day, so not dying would more than likely be my dream for right now." Taking a step backwards, Fu finished.

Their sensei continued on. "Now then, Naruto…Tobayame was it? The man said without looking up from where he was laying on the floor –When he had changed positions nobody was sure- "Could you introduce yourself?" Naruto strode up to face all three of his squad mates.

"My name is Naruto…Tobayame, I like training, foxes, and Morimoto-jiji's cooking. I dislike those who underestimate me, those who think they are superior to everyone else, prodigies who believe they don't need to train to be better, people who command respect without giving it first… And those who treat their family like dirt." Naruto clenched his hands "My dream for the future is to find out who I am as a person, and reconcile some issues I have with life." It was at this last statement that Naruto noticed his sensei look up at him, only to widen his eyes in surprise (1)

The man rolled up into a sitting position, and sighed. "I guess I might as well introduce myself. I am Tsuzuru, that is my name, you may call me Tsuzuru if you want; I don't care, but do not call me anything but Tsuzuru unless I deign it so. I like many things, and also dislike many things; both of these lists are too large to tell you right now. My dream for the future… Is the same as both Fu's and Naruto's, I suppose. I'm going to stop being a ninja after teaching you guys and start a family with a nice woman." (2)

Tsuzuru stood. "Alright guys, here's the deal. You know there's going to be another test to actually become Genin, right?" At his student's confused look, he continued. "Well, meet me at training ground 2 at seven-thirty. Eat breakfast, don't eat breakfast; either way you'll puke. I'll be going now." With that, Tsuzuru left in a small cloud of dust and particulate.

Naruto looked at his teammates. "Well, I'll be heading out. See you guys tomorrow." And with that, he also disappeared, although he disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

XxX

Naruto lay in bed, the perfect definition of still. His mind though, was the perfect definition of chaos. The questions swirling in his head, the answers that he thought of that only lead to more questions, they were dizzying. He thought of his adoptive mother, and his dead father, both adopted and biological. He had never really known his adopted father, since he was a ninja and would rarely come home for more than a day or two before being sent out for another mission. It was why he wanted to be a ninja, half to figure out what happened to his father and half to show his mother that he could take care of their family. But after he had gotten a hold of the casualty records that had shown his adoptive father as a casualty on an A-rank mission, he became even more focused on becoming a ninja, now for that vague feeling that he was doing something right by continuing his adoptive father's legacy. But that all changed now, since he now knew who his real father was. "I live in Iwa, land of my father's natural enemies. I'm an Iwa ninja…Do I continue my adoptive father's legacy, or my biological father's legacy? Who do I choose?" By this time, Naruto was silently crying, the tears streaming down his cheeks in diminutive rivulets. "Maybe…Maybe, I just won't choose…" After crying for a few more minutes, Naruto fell asleep, completely forgetting about the already cold dinner waiting for him downstairs…

XxX

Naruto woke up, rubbing his eyes against the heretic light that was entering his room. "What time is it?" He looked at the clock, which was showing a vibrant red 7:12. "Shit! I mean crap! Feces! Defecation! I'm late!" Rushing down into the kitchen, Naruto pulled on his clothes, shoes and headband on all at the same, which ended up with a bruised Naruto and a scuffed up outfit. After taking a few minutes to put his outfit on, he took out his breakfast, which was really his dinner from last night; and began to scarf it down hungrily. After finishing his meal, Naruto looked back at the clock on the wall of the kitchen, which showed a 7:24. After several more curses, Naruto tried to get to the training ground he was supposed to be at using shunshin. As he was executing the technique, he began to feel a very small pull. Taking a moment to explore this pull, Naruto felt it get stronger, and after another moment, he visualized the training ground he was supposed to be at.

-At Training Ground 2 (7:25)-

Fu was currently napping underneath a tree that was conveniently at the very edge of the training ground. She was resting peacefully only to get the butt end of a rolling Naruto into her sleeping form. "Gah!? What the hell? Naruto? What are you doing?" Naruto looked up sheepishly, his head swaying from side to side.

"Uhh…Shunshin's not supposed to do that…" They both quickly separated from each other and sat at opposite sides of the tree, only waiting several moments until the rest of their squad arrived at the training ground.

Tsuzuru stepped up in front of his three students. "Okay kids, here's the deal; you guys are to disable me to the point that I cannot fight back. You have six hours to set traps and what not. I will not peek on you guys; in fact I will be clear on the other side of the city. After six hours is up, I will come back to this training ground; and after that you will have one hour to try and capture me. If you cannot do that, all three of you fail. Understood?" At affirmative nods, Tsuzuru pulled out a clock and set the alarm to six hours.

"Well then, let's begin."

XxX

Tsuzuru was resting against a rock, his hands supporting his head. He looked up in the sky to note the time.

"Almost time, better get going. I wonder what the kids have in store for me? Probably just some kunai traps. It's not like I'm allowed to fail them anyway, what with the Tsuchikage's daughter and the boy on the team." Tsuzuru then jumped up to the monumental rocks surrounding this particular training field, and started on his way to the other side of the village, where his soon-to-be students had set up an ambush for him.

He was enjoying the time before he got to the training grounds he had left his students; he was never in the village for more than a day or so at a time and he intended to enjoy every minute he had. Jumping down from an outcropping that had been fashioned into a building for various shops, Tsuzuru set foot into the market district. It was a quaint place, with merchants selling their items and people haggling with the merchants. The noise seemed a tinge loud to his tastes, but it was to be expected. People were shuffling along in droves as they went to and fro trying to find whatever item they were looking for.

Tsuzuru himself stopped at a mundane building that had the sign "Morimoto's" above several flaps that separated the dusty streets and the restaurant within. Setting aside one of the flaps, he stepped in, and sat down at the bar right in front of where he could tell the food was made, at least he thought that the food was made there, if the smell coming from the back of the restaurant was any indication.

After several moments of waiting, he noticed a girl come out of the back, she appeared to be about 12 but he couldn't be sure, and come up to him. "Hello sir, do you know what you want? Or is this your first time here?" Her wide, inquisitive eyes seemed to bore into Tsuzuru's soul, and he shivered in response.

"No, uh... This is my first time here, do you happen to have a menu I can look at?"

"Yes we do sir, I'll have it to you in just a moment."

"OKay, thank you." A few moments pass.

"Here you go, sir."

"Many thanks, many thanks."

More moments pass.

"I'll take the Shrimp Tempura, two servings of Beef Barbeque, and an order of Miso Ramen."

"Will that be all, sir?"

"No, I almost forgot to order for myself, I'll just take that Miso Ramen."

"Okay, I'll bring your order out when it's finished, do you want me to make any of them to-go, sir?"

"Yes, my first three orders please."

"Will-do, sir."

Tsuzuru only had to wait about ten minutes before the girl came back out, this time with a plate in one hand and three boxes balancing on the other. "Here you go, sir." She placed the food on the bar in front of him, and Tsuzuru made a small 'itadakimasu' before eating. He wasn't disappointed.

After finishing his meal, he lifted the flap behind him and looked up at the sky, "About five or ten minutes left, should probably leave now." He turned around to grab the boxes and the girl was there, with her large, innocent eyes, boring into his soul. He shivered involuntarily again, and went to leave. He stopped right before he left, and turned to the girl, "You can call me Tsuzuru, I'll be here again later today." The girl nodded her head sharply.

"Okay Tsuzuru, sir. Have a good day, sir." Tsuzuru just gave a sigh, and chalked the 'sir' thing up as a habit.

Not wanting to waste any more time, Tsuzuru set out for his intended destination, with the food in stow. By the time he arrived at the training grounds, the alarm started to ring, on for the sound to be squashed as Tsuzuru shunshin'd onto it, effectively crushing it. Turning towards the sparse woodlands that surrounded him, he set the food down. "Alright, here's the rules. First, you don't get to eat unless you hit me. Secondly, come at me with the intent to kill, otherwise you won't eat. Lastly, Naruto sucks at hiding." At the last rule, Tsuzuru stomped his foot at a small rock next to alarm, crushing it into a coarse dust. After a moment, the dust disappeared in a cloud of dust, signifying that it was a clone. "Well, I'll be damned, it was just a petty clone." 'A shadow clone? How?!'

Tsuzuru got over the slight shock of seeing one of his students using what is commonly known as a kinjutsu, or forbidden jutsu. "Okay, kiddos, I hope you're ready; you're getting no relaxation while I'm out here." He then jumped down from the rock he was standing on and stared out into the forest, intentionally looking right into Naruto's eyes. "I'll be coming for you." Tsuzuru then raised his hand, and chopped it down like a sword.

"Start."

XxX

Tsuzuru hopped down from the boulder he was standing on, only to hear a 'click' as he landed. He immediately went on guard, paranoia taking over his countenance. 'What was that about? I'm pretty sure it was a trap. What was it supposed to...?' Tsuzuru noticed that everything had become covered in shade. 'There were no clouds out today, so why is it...? He looked up, only to see a veritable wall of ninja tools coming at him, ranging from your everyday kunai and shuriken, to some more exotic weapons like tanto and wakizashis. "Oh."

Sprinting off into the nearest forested area, Tsuzuru took cover behind one of the trees, staying as still as possible as the entire forest was under of siege of weaponry. He didn't stay for long as he noticed that several chakra signatures he was familiar with were moving into his position. Glancing up, he noticed that the branches in the higher portions of the trees were pretty easy to hide in, so he jumped up in quick succession to the highest branch that could support his weight. He waited for a few moments as what seemed like his two female students landed at the tree he was hiding behind.

"He was here just a second ago, wasn't he?" That was Fu.

"Yeah, maybe he hid up in one of those trees?..." That was definitely Kurotsuchi. 'Smart girl, she is.' Tsuzuru smiled wanly, only to frown severely when the girl pulled out several explosive notes 'Where'd she get those? Those aren't exactly cheap, whether she's pseudo-royalty or not.' He nearly gasped when she threw them at the trees around her. Luckily the nearest trees to him as well as the one he was situated in weren't targeted. Tsuzuru shut his eyes in preparation for the incoming blast. After he heard the explosion he opened eyes and he felt a strange sense of vertigo. Tsuzuru looked down, and noticed that the ground was now much closer than he had remembered it being. "Shit!" Tsuzuru rapidly formed a short seal sequence and was replaced by a log in the surrounding debris.

Tsuzuru took a moment to silently pray for the kawarimi, honoring it's sacrifice to his unworthy self. Iwa was much more tolerant than Konoha in this respect; Konoha only acknowledged the worship of the log kawarimi, while Iwa accepted all kawarimis as worthy of worship. After he finished his prayer, he went looking for the girls. After a few minutes of searching '45 minutes left...' he found the girls, but he was surprised by where he had found them... In a small offshoot pool of one of the many local hot springs around here...relaxing. Tsuzuru was instantly on guard. 'This is either a trap, they're very confident that their traps will work, or they think I died...'

"Sensei, I'm sorry."

Those words were the only warning as Tsuzuru felt cold steel against his neck. "You're a hundred years too early to think this will work on me kid."

"I know it will sensei, we already bound your hands."

"What?! When?" Tsuzuru was trying to move his hands to no avail. "I was just using them to jump from tree to tree; they were in front of me the whole... Genjutsu?" He turned around to see that there were two Narutos.

"Well, that makes two of us." Tsuzuru faded out of existence, to be replaced by a small knot of branches that has ninja wire wrapped around it, and a small exploding tag already primed.

"Shit."

"Fuck."

BOOM. Naruto looked up from the trap he was currently repairing, towards where his clones had been. 'Well, that didn't go well.'

"No, it didn't, did it?"

"Hey there, Tsuzuru-sensei..." Naruto's hand inched towards his kunai holster, the one on his left leg. That was something Tsuzuru hadn't noticed before; Naruto had a kunai holster on each leg. "I wouldn't do that if I were you, indeed I wouldn't." Naruto didn't listen however, and his fingers kept sliding towards his holster.

"I warned you." Naruto felt a sharp edge against his carotid

"Heh, Sensei. I wasn't even trying to get a kunai." Naruto did a quick chopping motion with two of the fingers in his left hand, and from somewhere in the surrounding forest a kunai sailed at a feverish set right at Tsuzuru's right calf, making him jump away. As soon as he did however, he noticed that the kunai wasn't aimed for him. He barely caught the dull glint of the matte material ninja wire was made up of as it was sliced in twain by the kunai. "I have a strange feeling about that..." He looked in his arms to notice that Naruto wasn't there anymore, but in his place was a log with a note that read "Seeya later sensei!" written in hastily scribbled handwriting.

Tsuzuru looked up at the sky again, a very similar shade covering the ground he was on. "Where the fuck did they get this much weaponry?"

-Flashback No Jutsu!-

"Okay, so how are we going to do this?" Fu asked the question, seeing as how Naruto was pacing around and Kurotsuchi was content with just sitting on the ground.

"Don't worry, I've got some ideas. I just need you girls to be distractions. I know it's presumptuous of me for asking this of you, but I like the think of myself as a prankster at heart. If anyone's gonna make traps that'll get him, it's me."

"Oh really? And how do you plan to do that, oh mighty prankster-sama?"

"Simple, I use my clones."

"What? clones are just illusions, they'll fly right through him!"

"My clones aren't illusions, they're real. They also happen to have all the gear that I am carrying on myself as well, and that amounts to... 56 kunai, 27 shuriken, and 7 explosive tags." Naruto scrunched his face up in concentration. "With a safe amount of clones... that comes out to... I think 1680 kunai, 810 shuriken, and 210 explosive tags, although the tags aren't very useful for anything other than a smoke cloud."

The girls were awed, not only by the quick mental calculation, but by the fact that they had a force multiplier; something like that would only make every situation they would ever face easier.

"Okay, I think I know where you're going with this. But we can't sit around and do nothing, is there anything in particular you need us to do?"

"I need you two to take a bath."

"No."

"Okay, but only if you join me like before."

Naruto couldn't say he was surprised by Fu's answer, although Kurotsuchi once again succeeded in making him feel... he didn't know the right word for it, but the closest he could call it was awkward. He grinned in a manner similar to a dog or a fox.

"Oh, that's alright. I understand, but-" Naruto pulled out several photos, several compromising photos… compromising to a twelve year old at least. "- I would hate it if these were to slip into the hands of some of your... more active fan boys, now wouldn't it?"

"You wouldn't dare..."

"Naruto-kun, how did you get those?" Fu jumped forward to grab the photos, only for Naruto to pull away at the last moment.

"Ah-ah-ah, I wouldn't do that if I was you, otherwise the real photos will be circulated..." Naruto grin only got wider.

"Fine, but I'll kill you after we pass."

"Please, Naruto. Don't do it."

"Thank you soooo much, you won't regret it. That bath may just help us win this test. Now, go get clean!"

-Flashback No Jutsu Kai!-

Tsuzuru felt a wave of dread wash over him as he once again ran into the forest among a virtual hailstorm of weaponry. He once again hid behind a tree as he waited for the metal rain to stop. As he took a step away from the tree, he noticed just a split second too late as a pair of kunai went sailing towards him, and crisscrossed each other before looping around the tree and sticking in. Tsuzuru tried moving his hands, but soon realized it was futile as he noticed that two more Narutos had appeared, and they had bound his hands separately. 'Shit, I didn't even sense those clones coming, that level of stealth in a genin is unprecedented. How did he get so good?' Tsuzuru looked up, through an opening in the canopy of the grove, and noted the time. "Thirty minutes... You caught me in thirty minutes. I'm impressed, I really am."

Tsuzuru then noticed that one of the Narutos was eyeing him suspiciously. A bit too suspiciously. The Naruto to Tsuzuru's left's eyes widened and he immediately grabbed for his kunai pouch. Too quick to notice, the Naruto had a kunai against the other Naruto. "Oh-hoh. Figured it out, I see. But like I said, you are a hundred years too young to be trying that against me, boy." This time the voice was projecting from the Naruto whose neck was touching metal. Tsuzuru or at least the Tsuzuru that looked like Tsuzuru then melted away, leaving a pile of mud.

"Shit."

That word was the only cue needed as Tsuzuru-Naruto pushed his hands forwards and his posterior out.(3) Jumping away, Tsuzuru landed on a low branch of one of the trees. He stared into Naruto's eyes, and Naruto stared back. After a few seconds of the staring contest, Naruto noticed that his sensei's eyes had quickly switched colours, going from a dark earthen brown, to a very light yellow, and then back again nearly as quickly. Saving that in the repository of memories at the back of his mind, Naruto continued to stare, waiting for a very certain moment he knew was coming.

Tsuzuru however, was completely flabbergasted. He was nearly blinded by the amount of chakra coursing through Naruto's system. 'The seal must be working miracles. He was nowhere near this level when he first went into the academy.' Tsuzuru, while he wasn't one for unwanted reputation, was known as the 'Omniscient Mystic'. He had the ability to see chakra, if he channeled some to his eyes. But that was only his most famous ability; if he wanted to, he could also tell what kind of elements that person had the most affinity for, what color their chakra was (4), and other more miscellaneous things ranging from telling just how hot a person is, to what they ate the night before. He had unlocked many of the secrets to chakra through his eyes. But Naruto... To Tsuzuru, Naruto was an anomaly. Naruto's chakra held nothing. Nothing whatsoever; nothing that Tsuzuru could discern. But Naruto shone with an exceedingly bright yellow-orange light. It was seeping out of him and mixing with the environment around him, just like food dye in water. 'Already, at this age, he knows how to hide his emotions?'

Tsuzuru blinked the water from his eyes, and that was all the opening that Naruto needed. Snapping his hand down, Naruto charged forward, intent of barreling right into his sensei. Of course Tsuzuru saw this, but as he was about to jump away, he was sharply pulled back down. He looked at his feet, and saw that his female students were holding on to his feet, each holding a kunai to his ankle. "Dammit, how'd you get here?"

"We aren't the ones you need to worry about, Sensei." Tsuzuru looked up, and noticed that Naruto seemed a lot bigger than he was before...His eyes widened. "Oh shit." Naruto body-checked Tsuzuru, just as Fu and Kurotsuchi released their hold on his ankles, and they both flew off the branch, tumbling on the hard packed earth below, causing a cloud of dust and dirt to obscure them from view.

Several seconds later, the dust cloud was thin enough to see what was in it. Fu and Kurotsuchi jumped down from their perch on a tree to see what had happened to their teammate and their sensei. What they were expecting was something along the lines of a taijutsu fight, but they were sadly disappointed. They were also surprised however, at what was before their eyes. Tsuzuru was lying on the ground, his face shoved into the dirt, and several Narutos were each pointing kunai into very sensitive parts of the body. "Fu, Kurotsuchi, could you tie his hand and feet up for me; one foot to a hand, and try to put them far apart from each other?"

-Several minutes later-

After the girls finished their bondage- rather tying their sensei up according to Naruto's specifications, they looked down at Tsuzuru, who despite being hogtied came up to about their waists.

"So sensei, we caught you, do we pass?" Fu asked, obviously awaiting the answer. Tsuzuru tried to respond, but the gag in his mouth prevented him from doing so. After on the girls removed the gag - Sorry sensei! - he laughed. "You would've passed anyway, I didn't even think you would give me a run for my money, let alone know how to work so well together with so little time actually being together. Speaking of working together, Naruto?"

"Yes, sensei?"

"You fool! You would've been able to catch me much sooner if you had let your teammates help you!"

"Sorry sensei. I just got carried away, and I was having so much fun that I didn't want them interrupting."

"What do you mean carried away, you barely got me. You should have let them help you."

"Oh no, sensei. I had much more up my sleeves." Naruto then made a grand gesture that encompassed the entire grove. "You guys can come out now!" From the forest came many things; animals like deer and rabbit and squirrels, some of whom were carry things like branches and kunai, and several bushes rolled out of the forest as well.

In one large explosion of smoke, they all dropped their henge. After the smoke cleared, several hundred Naruto could be seen. "Drop'em guys." The clones proceeded to drop all of their ninja gear, creating a pile many feet wide and several feet high. As a show of power, Tsuzuru had seen many that were better, but none of them were from a genin, let alone a fresh-out-of-the-academy genin.

"Either way, you guys captured me in approximately Thirty…Thirty-five minutes, so I guess now that the shenanigans are over, we can eat!" Out of the forest, coming from the direction of the river, was Tsuzuru carrying several Styrofoam containers. "I went to this neat little shop, called Morimoto's. They had some good food, and I thought you might enjoy it. Naruto, please stop drooling like that."

Naruto blinked out of his stupor, and then wiped his mouth with his arm. "Heheh, sorry about that Sensei, you just said you went to Morimoto-jiji's place. Did you order the ramen?" Tsuzuru scratched his head "Actually, I ordered it for you, but I realized that it would be cold by the time you got to eat, so I ate it instead. Other than that, there are two beef barbeques and one shrimp tempura. Eat up!"

Eat they did. After devouring their meals, Tsuzuru dismissed them, telling them to meet at the same training ground at noon the next day. They each went their separate ways to return home for a nice warm shower/bath. After they lay down in bed that night, they all had a thought.

"Wait, I used to bathe with Kurotsuchi?"

"How did Naruto get those pictures?"

"Why did I bring my ball-gag to the test in the first place?"

- Meanwhile -

"Come on man, you're me... I'm you... We should help each other out here. I don't want to wait until a STONE member finds me out here, I would rather save myself the embarrassment of them having to cut me out of being hogtied... Again."

"..."

"Really, I've tried selling you my first born child, granting you unlimited power, and an infinite amount of women to please your no doubt limitless libido. What do you want?"

"Say I'm better than you."

"But you're a mud clone, if anything you're only as good as one-tenth of me!" The clone stood up and started to walk away. "Okay!" He turned around. "I'll do it! I'll do it, dammit! You're...You're better...Tha-Than... M-m-me. You're better than me!" He turned around again and kept walking. "Wait, I thought we had a deal! You no-good-lousy-dirty-rotten-fleabag-eating-piece-of -scum-two-piece-bootlicker..."

- 6 hours later -

Konoha was not the only village in the elemental nations to have a black-ops force of extremely talented ninja. Iwa's was called STONE, and they were often sent out to do patrol missions while they were back from a mission or on leave. One such STONE member was on such a patrol mission. As he entered Training Ground 2 - A sparse forest environment with a transition to a plateau - he was treated a sight very rarely seen. A correct hogtie on a ninja. He dropped down to the ground, intent on helping out a fellow ninja when he got a look at who the man actually was. As the STONE tried to stifle a laugh, Tsuzuru jolted awake. "Shit, it's dark, what time is it? Wait, who's laughing? Who's there- Oh, it's just a STONE member, hello there. Wait, it's a STONE member! Could you help me out of this mess? I was left here by my students, those little snots. So what do you say?"

"We only do favours once, Tsuzuru-san." The STONE member jumped off to continue his patrol.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Tsuzuru was done, and he yelled out his sorrows to the only things that could listen, and he wasn't even sure they would if they weren't forced to: the stars. It did settle him a bit more when he heard some stray dogs join in on his session. "Well, only one way to get back to my place..." And Tsuzuru started waddling side to side to get home.

XxX

Naruto shot up, his body covered in cold sweat and his stomach heaving with every deep gasp of breath he took. He tried to stabilize his breathing, and succeeded after a few minutes. He slowly got out of bed and checked outside his window. Noting the only just appearing sun, he surmised he could easily go back to sleep for a few more hours, but he couldn't imagine doing so after the dream he just had. He could still remember it clearly, as if it had actually happened.

He remembered everything being much bigger than he was, and there were two figures, one was red and one was yellow, he couldn't really tell much from that but he just knew they were important. Whenever they spoke, it boomed into his ears, and he knew what language they were speaking in, but he couldn't understand them. He couldn't move of his own volition, even though he knew he was dreaming, and he only moved when one of the two figures moved. After a while another figure came and drew the yellow figure away, leaving only the red figure behind. What happened next was even more confusing. The figure slowly became more sharpened, gaining features that he couldn't notice before. What was before him was easily the most beautiful woman he had seen in his nigh-decade of life. She had cascading hair that reminded him of beets. She held a small smile, gracing her face with a divine quality that he would never forget. He heard nothing, but he knew what she was saying, "Be safe Naruto, eat your vegetables, treat your friends safely and serve them loyally, and meet a really nice girl and have cute Uzumaki children... I love you, son." After that, he was taken away by something he could not see, and then he heard an all too familiar roar...

'Kyuubi'

**"Yes, Fishcake?" **Naruto let the slight go. 'Was... was that my mom?'

**"What do you mean, 'is that my mom?' I can't see what you dream, you dingus."** Naruto could hear Kurama moving around in his cage. **"Red hair, pretty attractive for a human?"**

'Yes.'

**"Yeah, that's her. She was a fiery one, she was. Had me up in chains you know? I couldn't move, everything started to itch, and don't even get me started on when I needed to urinate... Those times were the worst."**

'What? What do you mean?'

**"What I'm saying Fishcake, is that your mom held me before you did, just as her... great-aunt I think held it before her. Me and the Uzumaki's go waaay back."** Naruto was beyond stunned. His mom carried Kurama? He quickly was brought back to earth when Kurama continued. **"Good thing you don't know how to utilize chakra chains, otherwise we wouldn't be so friendly right now. I hate those things with a passion."**

'What do you know of my mom?'

**"Pretty much everything, I'll just assume you want to know everything as well. I'll skip the parts you don't really need to know, makes it a much better story if you ask me." **

'I would like to know as much as I can'

**"Well, let's start at the beginning then..."**

Naruto sat on his bed, contemplating what he had just been told. His mom had lived a very hectic life. Although he understood why she fell for the Yondaime now. It was like fate had decided they were meant to be together. Speaking of his mom, she was an Uzumaki, and they were from the Land of Whirlpools, so maybe even more of them would be there? Kurama had been helpful so far, maybe he could help him? 'Hey Kurama, do you know where the Land of Whirlpools is? I might want to go there sometime.'

**"I'm sorry kit, but that won't be happening for a while, you see... The Land of Whirlpools was very powerful, but also very small, and they were a sea-locked country, so they couldn't get certain supplies very easily... Do you see where I'm going with this?" **

'No.'

**"The Land of Whirlpools is destroyed kid, it's gone, wiped off the face of the map by Kumo and Kiri, who thought they were getting too big for their britches. I didn't want to burst your bubble when I was telling you about your mom, but that's why she left." **

'Thanks for the concern, but I'm a ninja now, I can handle it.'

**"Sure you can kit, now go back to sleep, you have about an hour and a half left before you have to meet your team." **

'How did you know I had about an hour and a half left?'

**"I can see what you see, and I'm much better at telling time than you are. Being an animal, whether made of chakra or not, does grant some peripheral abilities." **

'Oh.'

**"Exactly, now go back to sleep." **

'Fine, but I still have some questions I want to ask you.'

**"That's fine Fishcake, just go back to sleep, and stop talking about Fu and Kurotsuchi in your sleep, people might start getting the wrong ideas.." **

'I don't talk about them in my sleep... Do I?'

**"Yes, yes you do. What did I just tell you, you little runt?" **

'Fine, fine, don't get your panties in a bunch. Good night.'

Five minutes. Five minutes, and Naruto was already rushing out of the door, fully dressed in his training attire, with a small backpack that had an extra set of clothes and his weapons holster. He jogged across the village to training ground 2, his team's assigned training ground, and created approximately 150 kage bunshin, separating them into 10 groups. "Group one, go practice our taijutsu kata, there are some holes we need to fix. Group two through five, work on chakra control, you know what to do. Group five through eight, go to the shinobi library and research all of the d- and c-rank jutsu you can, I want versatility, not explosions, but if you find versatile explosions, all the better. Group nine, work on the shunshin, and group ten, we will do a light spar." Of course, a 'light spar' always ended up as a free-for-all brawl at the end of the day, but Naruto never complained. After a moment, an idea shined through the fog that is Naruto's mind. "Group ten will not be sparring with me, instead, we will be working on our calligraphy. I brought some ink and pens so you should have some as well…" He finished to a group of Naruto standing at attention. "What are you waiting for? Get started!"

XxX

Tsuzuru waddled into Training ground 2, completely expecting it to be empty. He was surprised to see nearly a hundred Naruto's in the field, doing... Whatever it was they were doing. He waddled over to the tree he was going to hide in, but since he couldn't do anything other than... Wait a moment... "Naruto!" The entire field looked around at him, their necks moving so fast that the cacophony of cracks was audible. 'Ouch' Tsuzuru shuddered, but continued what he was going to say.

"Hey there, I didn't think you would be here so early, what's got you up?" Naruto, for his part, was confused, not because of what his sensei asked him, but because he was still tied up.

"Just practicing with my clones, sensei. They help me find out things I would have trouble with, like a second set of eyes. I... I forgot to untie you yesterday, didn't I?"

"Yes. Please help."

"Okie dokes, Sensei, just give me a minute to finish writing this paragraph." Naruto finished faster that he thought he would, but he paid it no mind. Jogging over to Tsuzuru, who was still laid against the trunk of the tree, Naruto took out a kunai and cut the wire. "You could've told me to help you before I left sensei."

"I did. You just didn't listen; you were too busy with your girlfriends." Naruto blushed naively at the statement. "Sorry about that then. But surely someone must have helped you out of that, how many people did you ask?"

"584 people and they all said no out of spite."

"Nani? Why would they do that?"

"This isn't the first time I've been hogtied correctly Naruto. Last time, it was much more... Inappropriate."

"Fine, I won't ask, but really, why would nobody help you?"

"Like I said Naruto, they did it out of spite. They think it's funny to see me suffer, to see me not even get up the stairs to my apartment, to see me have to sleep with the stray dogs, the only ones who can understand my pain. Do you know what that's like Naruto? DO YOU?"

"Uhh...Sensei, are you okay? Did you get enough sleep yesterday, or did the dogs do something to you? You should probably go to the hospital; I've heard stray dogs sometimes carry rabies."

"No, I'm fine Naruto, the dogs didn't touch me, I was just venting. Although a good piece of advice for you to remember kid; ninja are never fully okay." Naruto decided to put that tidbit of information in the back of his head.

Taking a look to the sky, Naruto estimated that he got here about an hour ago. "Hey sensei, Why are you here early? Were you planning on getting a little bit of training in?"

Tsuzuru laughed nervously "Actually, I wasn't sure if I could waddle fast enough to make it on time if I left at my usual time, so I left early."

"Oh. Sensei, do you know anything about seals?"

"What makes you ask that?"

"I've been reading about them, they seem really cool, and I've been practicing my calligraphy so I can start using them. So, do you know anything about them?"

"Actually I do, but just enough to make storage scrolls, pretty much beginner level stuff. I can look at what you've done so far. You don't have to have perfect handwriting for the basics."

"Thanks sensei!"

Jogging back to where he was situated, against a tree overlooking a few hills that encompassed a large pond, he grabbed his tools and the paper he was using to write. Tsuzuru grabbed that sheet, and wasn't as surprised as he thought he would be 'Of course his son would be adept at seals at such a young age' "Naruto, your calligraphy is near perfect. You can start learning now, if you wish to. But it might make sense to get some more practice in, especially at writing at faster paces so you can make fuuinjutsu less of a time-consuming practice." Naruto beamed at the compliment.

"Okay, thanks sensei." Turning back to his clones, he cupped his mouth and started to yell. "OKAY, ALL OF YOU WHO AREN'T DOING CALLIGRAPHY GET STARTED ON IT. WRITE SLIGHTLY FASTER THAN YOU ARE USED TO, WE NEED TO WORK ON SPEED NOW. AFTER EVER FIVE MINUTES OR SO, FIVE OF YOU DISMISS YOURSELVES!" After he was finished, Naruto went to rest against the tree he was using, and went into a meditative pose.

'Fox, you told me it would take years to get my calligraphy to acceptable levels.'

**"Of course I did, Fishcake. I don't want you getting arrogant, I can't stand arrogance. It wasn't just for that either. Storage scrolls are literally the easiest fuuinjutsu out there. There will be a time where you need absolutely perfect handwriting, otherwise the seal won't work, or worse, it'll backfire. I was doing that for your safety. But, since the proverbial cat is out of the proverbial bag, I'll tell you right know that you have above average calligraphy compared to many other people who focus in fuuinjutsu, but we can chalk that up to your unique training method. To be honest kid, if you wake up an hour earlier every day and just focus on perfecting your writing with fifty clones, you'll become as proficient with handwriting as fuuinjutsu master in about nine months. Although, if you used... say... two hundred clones, you would be able to get to that level in... I would hazard a guess at about three month's times. Good thing those clones of your help with muscle memory." **

'I think that was the most I've ever listen to you actually say, Kurama.'

**"Look at it from my point of view, Fishcake. I myself am interested in the sealing arts, for very obvious reasons, and since I can't find out anything about it, might as well get my container interested in it. Other than that, you also know of the potential power held by fuuinjutsu masters. It's a great field to be in as well, if from what I can gather from your memories is any indication, not many people take the time to learn much more than what they need of fuuinjutsu. It's something that sticks to you if you get good at it. I'm starting to sound like an old man, I need to stop going on tangents."**

Naruto stared at Kurama, before walking to the other side of the room and sitting down. 'Well, I hope you don't mind if I just chill here, do you?'

**"Don't tell me you like this place, Fishcake? This is a sewer for Ramen's sake; you might as well change it." **

'Did you just deify ramen?'

**"You do it too; you just haven't said anything yet."**

'Touché.'

**"But, back to fixing this filthy place up, Fishcake. If you are taking suggestions, I want a forest with trees that stand as megaliths against the terrain under which I can chase my prey, a lake where the largest of bass can be found, and a large cave system that is never the same as the last time you entered it."**

'That's a lot; let me see if I can do that. I take it I just imagine what you want, and sort of juxtapose it together?'

**"Yes, and stop using big words, it makes you sound weird, Fishcake." **

'Hey, I'm doing a favour, don't be rude.'

**"Oh, I'm soooo sorry Fishcake-Sama." **

'Jerk.'

**"Woman" **

'Bitch'

**"Cum-dumpster" **

'How dare you?'

**"What are you going to do about it, eh, porch monkey?" **

'That's it. Just let me finish what I'm doing. We'll continue this at a later time, and then we'll see who wins, wannabe dog.' Naruto promptly finished reimaging his mindscape to Kurama's specifications and left his mindscape.

'Whew, that was close.' Naruto could practically see Kurama still looking at Naruto, his jowls agape.

Kurama, however, was not flabbergasted. **"Only a fox could out-insult another fox. But that makes me wonder, is having him learn the sealing arts going to actually help him? I know those seals the men who run this village put on him is to control his memory, but are they really that bad? Surely after seeing what happened to him before he came here, Naruto wouldn't want to return to Konoha..."** Kurama then laid down next to the lake that Naruto had created for him. **"He needs to return to Konoha, there are things waiting there for him that he needs."** With thoughts about Konoha and Naruto plaguing his mind, Kurama fell into a restless sleep.

After the debacle with Kurama, Naruto proceeded to start writing his own calligraphy a little faster. It wasn't until an hour after the team was supposed to meet at training ground 2, did Fu or Kurotsuchi arrive. They had overslept, Naruto heard one of them say. He didn't care much, if it was a bad habit, they would get out of it sooner or later. He was just glad he got the extra time to spend working on his writing skills. He knew that no matter how good you are at something, there's always somebody who's better than you are. Tsuzuru was waiting for them the entire time, just laying against that tree that held the sign saying Training Ground 2 on it. He didn't scold the girls for arriving late; in fact, he was sort of glad that it happened when they weren't on a mission or needed for something. After he was finished talking to the girls, he told the Narutos that were left to dismiss themselves and that the original needed to come back.

Jogging lightly over to where he knew his teammates to be, he greeted them cheerfully. "Hey everyone! How're you guys doing?"

Author's notes Time!

This actually seems to be one of my shortest chapters to date. I'm not sure if this surprises me or not. But, I want to know if you guys enjoyed this chapter or not. I plan on having the next chapter make up for this one a little bit, because so far my chapters' average have been a solid 10k words. Although, that might change, depending on if you guys want a more consistent update schedule.

That being said, on to more important news, like how you guys want Naruto's love life to go. I've been asked whether or not Naruto will be paired with a certain character, and I for one think that if anything, the readers like you get a chance to decide what girl, if any, Naruto may end up with. This is by no means saying that Naruto will end up with a romantic partner in the near future, he is only nine, but it's a question that I'll need to think more about as the story goes on, and I would enjoy some feedback from you viewers.

Also, while this is a Naruto-centric story, it will shift focus to other characters if I think the story can be more compellingly told from that point of view. You will see me do more of this in the next chapter, if it goes the way I want it to.

(1): Yes. This is the same Tsuzuru, in case you were wondering. You thought he wasn't going to be a recurring character, did you?

(2): I imagine Tsuzuru as the taijutsu-specialist equivalent of Shikamaru. He was blessed with great capabilities, but not the motivation to use them. Albeit, that's changed over the course of his life, but Tsuzuru is still a lazy bastard at heart.

(3) This is a move that is taught by self-defense teachers, mostly to women. This make the offender hyper-extend their arms, causing a significant loss of grip to the victim. The rear is then extended to make the offender off-balance, letting the victim get out of the hold quickly.

(4) The way I see it, why can't chakra have different colours? It's like an expression of their inner self. An example would be Sakura and Neji. Sakura would have a slightly green coloured chakra for her need to help people and be useful. Neji's chakra would be a more neutral color, like a grey, since he is not very emotional and takes time to think of the most logical solution to an answer. This would be the same for Ino and Shino, respectively.


	5. The Mission

Tsuzuru stretched the muscles in his body, relaxing from their uncomfortable state.

"Okay kids, you're ninja now, no dilly-dallying. First off, before anything else, I want you three to do a warm-up exercise exactly half an hour long. No more, no less." When he was met with confused stares he continued.

"Well? What are you three little gremlins doing? Get to warming up!" All three children snapped out of their confusion, and proceeded to spread out and start stretching. While the children were busy, Tsuzuru got to work. He started his own workout, completing multitudes of push-ups and various other light exercises before his students were even halfway done.

After the three children were finished and Tsuzuru had completed his twelfth lap around the spacious training grounds, he called them over the side of a small stream.

"Okay you three. This is it; the beginning. Before we start our exercises today, I want you to keep one thing in mind. What do you fight for?"

Seeing the looks of confusion on the children, Tsuzuru continued "It's not something you can answer at such a young age, so don't try to find an answer. It's one of those things that just come to you with experience." He began wading into the water, breaking the current and causing the fish in that part of the water to jet away.

"Follow me." His voice left no room for argument, and with extreme reluctance the three students were in the river with their sensei.

"I-It's C-cold…"

Naruto looked over to Fu, who was currently trying to warm herself. "Why are we in the river s-sensei?" They all heard the giant chuckle.

"You guys learned tree-walking when you were in the academy right?" He turned around to see them all nod.

"Good, then you know how to attach your chakra to objects. Do you guys know water-walking?" They all nodded in the negative, except for Naruto. Tsuzuru gave him a queer look, almost as if he didn't expect anyone to do any extra training outside the academy.

"Didn't think so. So, I'll tell you about this exercise I thought up. What I want you three to do, is to take off your shoes if you hadn't already done so, and try to attach yourself to the rocks at the bottom of this stream. Naruto, this should be pretty easy for you, since this is a sort of in-between for the two."

Kurotsuchi promptly got out of the river to take off her sandals, and while she was doing so, looked at her sensei with confusion.

"Tsuzuru-sensei, I know that this is supposed to help us, but how?" Tsuzuru chuckled again.

"I was hoping one of you would ask me that! Let me explain something to you. You children know that tree-walking is one of the basic tenets of the Shinobi way, correct? Well, what you don't know is that before the Second Ninja War, most shinobi and kunoichi didn't know how to utilize the water-walking technique. What they used was instead a sort of prototype. It utilized the ability to change the shape of chakra to create hook-like structures that the ninja would then use to attach themselves to objects, such as the rocks at the bottom of this stream. I want you three to learn this technique, and then master it."

Naruto had a question, and he seized the chance to ask it. "But sensei, what application does this technique have? Especially in battle?" Tsuzuru looked at Naruto, and walked over to a boulder which was just poking out of the river.

"Watch this."

Tsuzuru attempted a handstand on the rock, but the slime on the rock caused the man to slip and fall into the river. Standing back up to a chorus of giggling, the giant of a man went to the opposite side of the rock. His hands started to faintly glow with chakra and he completed the handstand, staying in the position for several seconds.

"Did you see that? What this technique does is a sort of battlefield control. Say that your enemy has used a jutsu which covers the battleground with a very slippery liquid. This technique will allow you, if you need it, to reach the substance below that liquid with your chakra, and then attach yourself to it. In fact, it's saved my life before, several times. Is that all you wanted to ask?" Naruto shook his head.

"Actually, I wanted to make sure it's okay with you if I use clones to help me with this exercise." Tsuzuru looked up to the sky in thought. "I don't see why not; just make sure you don't hurt yourself using them. Actually… If you're going to utilize clones, I would like for you to follow me." Walking out of the river, Tsuzuru created a single clone, which nodded to the man and went into the spot he had once occupied in the river.

Spotting the cue, Naruto created a few clones, a few being an abstract term meaning a few dozen to the young blonde. They all looked for a spot on the river to practice, and eventually the entire section of the river was being used. Promptly after that, Naruto and Tsuzuru walked in the forest surrounding the group.

Fu took this moment to strike up a conversation with the other female in the team.

"Naruto's a weird one, isn't he? He didn't know this much in the academy, I wonder where he learned it." Kurotsuchi only nodded, and then began the exercise. After a few seconds, one of the Narutos simply 'poofed' out of existence, and the others started cheering.

"Already?!"

Fu was shocked; Naruto never got anything down that fast before. The Tsuzuru clone was puzzled, and he promptly grabbed one of the Naruto clones

. "So you say you learned it already? If so, you should be able to stand up against more… turbulence." The Naruto clone gulped.

"Sensei, is this really necessary?" All the response he got was a dark chuckle and a whisper of "Suiton: Suiken" before water from the river coalesced around the giant's palm and shot towards the clone. A second and another 'poof' later, the Naruto clones were smirking.

"Seems we're just that good sensei!"

"Ha! Didn't even budge."

"You thought that would get us… Silly giant, tricks like that won't work against us!"

"That sort of hurt, you know."

Tsuzuru grinned. "Good. Now, since he got it so quickly, all of the remaining Narutos are to do conditioning. I want you to find something heavy and start doing squats."

The clones all let out a sigh, and one of them raised their hand. "Uhm… Sensei, while we clones can do physical conditioning, it doesn't… Count, if you can say that."

"What do you mean 'doesn't count'?"

"Exactly that Sensei; using the clone method for physical conditioning doesn't help, and we aren't exactly sure why."

"Okay then, do…Whatever it is you clones do then. Meditate or something. I don't want you guys to be messing with the girls' concentration though, you understand?" To a chorus of 'gotcha' Tsuzuru went back to teaching his other two students. Noticing they had both stopped what they were doing to watch the spectacle, Tsuzuru brought them back to Earth.

"You heard me girlies, get to work!"

XxX

"So Sensei, why are we out here?"

Naruto had been following Tsuzuru into the small forest surrounding the lake, and after a few minutes they arrived at a clearing, obviously used as a campsite by the setup of logs and the scorch marks on the ground. Sitting on one of the logs, Naruto waited for his sensei's answer.

"Now that you're a ninja, what do you want to do?

"What do you mean by that, Sensei?"

"What do you want to do as a ninja? What do you want to focus on in your career? It's something I need an answer to, because what you answer with will dictate what I teach you."

"Do I need to answer now?"

"You can take a few minutes to think it over if you want, but I need an answer."

So Naruto started thinking. What did he want to do? He had never really thought about it, but it made sense now. No ninja he ever heard of was the best at everything. Sure, talent could you get you really far in some areas, but unless you were focused on that area, you could only become so proficient at it.

'What should I focus on… What a big question.' It didn't take him long to be stuck.

'I don't know… What if I choose something and I end up sucking at it?'

'**Kit, with your blood you could choose anything and excel at it.'**

'You think so Kyuubi?'

'**Didn't I tell you not to call me that? Do you even remember what my name is, runt?'**

'Uhh…Kyu…ri..bama?' Naruto could feel the fox's glare.

'**Gah, and here I think you're making some progress. '**

'Shut up Kyuubi, I'm trying to decide what I should focus on for my ninja career… Wait, Kyuubi, didn't you say that both of my parents were really good with fuinjutsu?'

'**There we go kit. I didn't want to say anything, but you're making a right choice there. With your blood, I doubt there has been or ever will be a better potential for fuinjutsu in anyone else.'**

'But I shouldn't just focus on Fuijutsu, however awesome it is. No, I need something to make up for Fuinjutsu's weaknesses…Just what are those?'

'**Time, for the most part. From what I can tell, it takes a long time to make a seal. Since you're training yourself to write at fast paces, it's not as pronounced, but it's the really big problem. '**

'I can just make sure to write seals in advance then. So other than that there isn't really any weakness, which means I'm free to choose another specialization.'

'**If you'll allow me to make a suggestion, the physical aspect of your "arts", taijutsu I think they're called, would really help you. I know firsthand the fickleness of ninjutsu; there are many ways to reduce or even nullify their effects. Your arts of the mind, genjutsu, are easily transferred to seal paper, and you don't have the control necessary for such an art anyway. Taking up a sword might be a good thing, but it takes dedication, and even then, if you're not physically fit, your ability will suffer. So, if you've been following all along like I hope you would be, focusing on taijutsu and then thinking about taking up the sword later would be the best course of action right now.'**

Naruto frowned, perking the interest of Tsuzuru.

'But Ninjutsu are soo cool!'

'**And there's nothing stopping you from learning a few, it's just that when you look at it from a purely objective standpoint, taijutsu is much more beneficial to you in both the short and long-term. Just think of it this way: If someone decided to use a jutsu on you, how can it hit you if you're faster than it? Not to mention the fact that you're nine; the enemy will never consider you being a Taijutsu specialist which will lend you the element of surprise.'**

Not seeing any fallacy in that logic, Naruto nodded his head, drawing a confused stare from Tsuzuru.

Naruto opened his eyes, noticing the stare he was getting. "What's up Sensei? Was I talking or something?"

Tsuzuru nodded in the negative. "So, I take it you've chosen what you want to focus on?" He was stirred when he noticed Naruto's smile. It seemed so…_ Brutal_.

"Yeah, I'm going to focus on Fuinjutsu and Taijutsu." Now it was Naruto's turn to be scared witless by his sensei's smile. In fact, his sensei's smile reminded him of another giant…

'**That man has nothing on me… Even if he is good.'**

"That's a fortunate set of circumstances for both of us." When Tsuzuru started giggling, Naruto began inching his way away from the clearing.

"Oh, you're not going anywhere Naruto. In fact, we can start your training right now." With a poof of dusty smoke, another Tsuzuru was formed and quickly went back to where the river was. "Now there's nothing stopping us from getting started…"

XxX

Naruto had never been so sore in his life. Tsuzuru, as Naruto found out intimately that day, was a Taijutsu specialist. Whether that was a good or bad thing, Naruto had yet to decide. He greatly appreciated the expert help, but the amount of exercising he was doing was insane. He had to do a few hundred squats, push-ups, jumping jacks, sit-ups, burpees as he learned to call them for endurance conditioning. After that was the flexibility conditioning, which consisted of him doing this horrendous thing called 'yoga'. Following that was the strength portion. Tsuzuru told him to not expect much improvement in that area, considering his age. But he still had to do work, which was mostly running, because it was an exercise which would also help his endurance. After running, he would start working on his actual taijutsu. His style seemed to interest Tsuzuru, who mentioned that was familiar, but he couldn't remember why.

"Come on kid, if you're sore after this you won't make it past tomorrow. This is just three hours of training; usually it'll be six hours. From now on, when we aren't doing teamwork exercises, you're working with me. You got it kid? I'm going to make you something to be feared. " Tsuzuru looked up into the sky, noting the time. "Anyway, we need to get back to the river, see how the girls are doing."

"Did you make the girls do this too?!" Naruto knew that Fu could handle it, although not as well as he could. Kurotsuchi he had no idea about…

"No, you dunce. I had my clones do the same thing I did for you. Their training differs depending on what they wanted to focus on. It's just coincidence that you chose my specialty."

Naruto smiled. "Okay then! Let's go see the girls." HE started to jog off, before he was grabbed by his shoulder. Tsuzuru was looking down at him.

"Hey kid, about that clone jutsu of yours, how'd you learn it?" Naruto smiled sheepishly, and began rubbing the back of his head. (1)

"Oh, from a scroll. Why, do you want to learn it sensei?" The mocking tone didn't miss Tsuzuru's ears.

"Yes. I'll need it for about a week or two. I'll be really busy teaching you three that I might not get a lot of time to learn it."

"Okay sensei. So, what will you give me for it? It's not for free you know." Naruto started laughing.

"Hmm... How about I don't double the time we train tomorrow?"

"Oh o-okay sensei. That's a great trade… haha…"

The rest of their walk was in silence, and after a few minutes they were back in the clearing. The sight they were introduced to was…

"Why is everyone asleep sensei?" Naruto looked up at the giant beside him, noting the twitch in his left eye.

"It seems we have a prodigious genjutsu user in our team Naruto." Tsuzuru began slowly forming seals.

"Suiton: Suiken." Two balls of water formed around Tsuzuru's outstretched hand, and they both burst towards the two sleeping girls. A bout of sputtering later, and they were awake. While they were getting themselves presentable, Tsuzuru went to his clones and stomped on them, causing them to burst into clouds of dust and debris.

"Gah! Sensei! What was that about?"

"Gosh, you almost ruined my clothes!"

Tsuzuru, for his part just stood in front of the pair. He started to tap his foot, gaining the attention of the two groggy girls. "Well, what did you guys choose, and why did you think it was pertinent to practice genjutsu on your teammates? Fu seemed the most awake of the two, and she hastily stood up, facing up towards her sensei's face.

"I decided to focus on iryojutsu, with a secondary focus on ninjutsu. I was told that I have some great chakra control, so I believe that I can do my best in those two arts. Other than that, I assumed Naruto would be focusing on Taijutsu at the least, right?" Naruto nodded in the affirmative.

'**She's pretty smart Naru-kun. In a few years, you might want to think about making her yours.'**

'Really Kyuu-chan, you wanna start this now?' He knew that would shut the damn fox up for at least an hour. He didn't even know what was so insulting about "Kyuu-chan" that it subdued the fox in the first place, but he wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

A few moments passed before Kurotsuchi was able to stand straight without stumbling. 'Evidently She's not a morning person…'

"Gomen Sensei. I thought it would be good practice instead of meditation, and I didn't mean any harm by it. In fact, I think all they imagined was becoming very sleepy and hearing their favourite lullaby. That being said, I chose to focus on gen and nin-jutsu. Being aware of the fact that I have above average chakra control and chakra volume for my gender and age, I believe these two arts would be the best for me."

Tsuzuru was silent for a few moments, until he went to the bank of the river and began to lie down. Naruto, Fu, and Kurotsuchi just observed their teacher, wondering what he was doing. When he didn't move for ten minutes, all three of them went and lied beside their teacher.

It was just a tad too late though, for as soon as they got comfortable Tsuzuru stood up. He looked at his students. Fu scrambled to her feet; Kurotsuchi took her time to make sure she didn't stumble, and Naruto just continued to lay there, enjoying the small breeze that swept through training ground 52.

"Okay children, since the sun is still high in the sky, we will start our warm-down – This elicited a grown from the prone Naruto – shush you, this is for your improvement, it is indeed for your improvement. We'll start with some flexibility exercises, and then finish it with a small jog."

-Half an hour later-

"Okay kids, time to wrap it up." Tsuzuru had had the children run around the training grounds for nearly 20 minutes. While it was nothing much for Naruto, it seemed to tire the other two students out a bit.

"Finally!"

"Yatta!"

"Now I'm all sweaty…"

Naruto and Fu looked over to Kurotsuchi, who was fussing about with her clothes. She looked up, and noticing them looking at her, mouthed a 'what?' After that, they all gathered next to the stream, and the students sat down.

Tsuzuru looked down upon them, his face stony. "Well, I have the information I need. It'll take me a small while, but I'll see what I can do to make sure you can get as far as possible into your respective specialties. Just remember that you are genin, and right now being versatile is essential, so in addition to your specialties, take some time to learn the other arts as well. Too many ninja die from being too specialized."

All three students understood what he meant. They wouldn't die.

Tsuzuru turned around, staring at the brush surrounding them. "Okay kids, training's done for today. Now that we have some time, I'll tell you your schedule… For the first three days of the week, we'll have team training, mainly to get your guys at the point where you are a coherent unit. The two days out of the week after that is dedicated to specialty training. The last two days out of the week are for you to decide what to do with. I might recommend resting one of the days, and then training on whatever you wish the second. We will meet here at the same time we did today every day we have training for a report on how you have been progressing."

His students nodded, even though Tsuzuru couldn't see it.

"Now you can go home. Naruto, could I accompany you to grab that scroll?" Tsuzuru turned around to note that both of his female students were nowhere to be seen, and Naruto had an amazed look on his face.

"Even Kunoichi don't enjoy being dirty Naruto, now please, let's go grab that scroll."

XxX

"Hmm. This chair's getting pretty uncomfortable. Maybe it's time for me to take a walk…" Pushing himself off of his chair, Onoki made him way to his door. As soon as he opened it, he was aware of how close he was to a very certain ninja.

"Oh, Tsuzuru. What brings you here today? Did you finish your training with your students? Speaking of which, how are they? Walking to his desk, the aged Tsuchikage grabbed something and began walking out of his office, Onoki made a motion for Tsuzuru to follow him, which was followed.

The walk's pace was brisk, Onoki's pace not diminished from age or fatigue, but Tsuzuru had no trouble keeping up; one of his strides equaled the length of many of the smaller man's. "Tsuchikage-sama, I bring news that I would rather nobody else hear." He saw the old man's body jerk, a sure sign of a chuckle.

"That's well and good, but I couldn't stand another minute in my office? How about we go somewhere… Private then? That sounds good, just follow me if you will." Onoki then switched his direction, making a sudden half turn, and began his brisk walk again. It wasn't another half an hour until they reached their apparent destination: A small meadow on the outskirts of the city.

"This place isn't a training ground, and it's been in my family's possession for nearly three-hundred years now. If nowhere else, we are safe here. But just to ease my own tensions, I brought along some seals to help keep things between us."

Tsuzuru was cowed enough, but his gut told him there was something off about this. He listened to his gut, but he listened to his Tsuchikage before that. He watched as his leader set the seals he had grabbed in a pattern reminiscent of a triangle, before sitting down in the grass. Taking his cue, Tsuzuru did the same.

"Tsuchikage-sama, it's come to my attention that the clone technique Naruto had displayed at his graduation exam was indeed the Kage Bunshin. After realizing this, I asked to obtain the scroll from him." Tsuzuru fumbled around with his jacket, before pulling out a scroll. "I've yet to read it, but I don't think that Naruto is trying to hide anything from me. I thought you would like to read it first." Handing the scroll to Onoki, the man opened it.

_Shadow Clone Jutsu_

_One of the Five Great Clones, the Shadow Clone jutsu gives the user the power to harness their shadow and chakra to create a being of light, identical to themselves, with half of their chakra. These being are unique from any other clones, as they are chakra constructs made from a non-solid. This leads to their primary weakness: their fragility. It is said that a true master of this technique can circumvent this weakness, how it is not clear._

_Shadow Clones, like no other clone, has the ability to transfer memory and experience to the original user. How this is incorporated into the jutsu itself is unknown, but research has been conducted with no results. This information has been used by many ninja who believed it would help with training, but the chakra necessary to maintain such a method is too much for most ninja of any rank._

_The easiest way to become able to create shadow clones is to meditate and then make an attempt. This method of learning is the easiest, both in chakra usage and overall fatigue. It is possible for a person to not need meditation before learning the technique, but this is quite rare, and demonstrates an innate proficiency at the jutsu._

_When more than one Shadow Clones are produced, they all gain a hive-mind mentality; where the caster of the jutsu can give objectives to one and all other clones innately know the same objectives. This can be used to separate groups of clones for various jobs, increasing the versatility of this technique. As well as gaining the hive-mind mentality, the caster of the jutsu splits his or her chakra evenly among all clone he/she creates and his/herself.. This means that creating one clone halves the caster's chakra, while summoning a hundred divides the original's chakra into one-hundred and one portions._

_Shadow Clones are also the only known clones able to transfer memories of their 'lives' to the original caster of the jutsu, granting him or her the experience of their clones. This can be used as a training technique to exponentially decrease the time necessary to learn something. This ability seems to only extend to the mental arts; physical training by clones has no impact on strength of the original user, but the muscle memory gained is transferred. Scientific inquiry pending into the exact effects of this facet of the jutsu is currently underway._

_Kage Bunshin have a strange ability to replicate all matter that is on the caster the moment they use the jutsu. This doesn't go so far as to include any objects pinning the caster down or such, but it does include any gear or accessories being carried by the caster. Research is being done into whether or not these 'shadow-items' are an inane side-effect of the jutsu, or an actual recreation of the item itself, lethality included. So far, it has been concluded that all objects with a sharp edge are recreated with the same sharp edge._

_Another unusual aspect of the Kage Bunshin is its capability to form coherent thought. If the situation arises, it is possible for a Kage Bunshin to become completely sentient, although it retains all of its previous strengths and inherent weaknesses. It has been noted that most Kage Bunshin that become sentient retain a portion of their original copy's personality, but other sub secondary personality traits have been shown to have a higher chance of affecting the clone. This may include an increased aggressiveness, to absolute apathy, to even making the clone a sociopath. Research is being conducted into whether or not there are patterns that can be associated with these personality abnormalities, but there have been no results until now._

_Yet another unique aspect of the Kage Bunshin is the complete lack of shadows on any of the clones. The cause of this is yet unknown, but it can be inferred that since these clones are not actually any material, but rather light held together by chakra, there isn't enough material for the clone to create a shadow. It is possible to give a clone a shadow, and there are several ways to go about this. The simplest way is to give the clone actual clothing, instead of their pseudo-clothing. There are also several jutsus that can grant the clone a shadow, but these can be easily seen through, and are not as efficient as simply clothing the clone._

_Beware: unsupervised or haphazard use of this technique can lead to severe mental strain, leading to various conditions. Conditions gained from inept use of this jutsu include: Multiple Personality Disorder, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Schizophrenia, Bi-Polar Disorder, Depression, Neurosis, Agoraphobia, Anxiety Disorder, Insomnia, Dementia, Chakra Exhaustion, Chakra Blowout, Chakra Implosion, Chakra Reversion, and Death. It is possible that other disorders and illnesses can be acquired, but their occurrence is rare enough to not warrant mention._

_Rank: S_

Onoki was surprised. "An S-rank jutsu huh? Makes sense, considering its applications and drawbacks. Tsuzuru, this is Kinjutsu material, at the very least. I want you to make a copy of this into out Kinjutsu Library, and then return this to Naruto. When you have them come in for missions, I'll have a conversation with you two to figure out what he wants for his patronage to the village."

Tsuzuru had to give the Tsuchikage some praise. Even if he was exploiting a kid, it was _that_ kid. If nothing else, they wanted to make sure he would never leave this village. "Tsuchikage-sama, that reminds me. About his status as a… You-know-what." That earned a snort from Onoki. "When do you plan on him meeting the other two?"

Onoki was silent for a moment, before looking up at the man next to him. "That's a great question. I personally never thought about making them all meet, in fact I don't know why I didn't. We should probably get them to meet each other before Naruto's too old to be swayed by them. In fact, I have just the thing to get them to meet. So, when _do_ you plan on bringing your kids in for a mission?"

Tsuzuru looked up at the sky, watching the clouds pass by. "Ideally? Maybe a month. It might be two, it all depends on how well they do together. Speaking of which, can I just send Naruto in for our D-Ranks? You and I both know those aren't helpful in anyway other than some extra cash. I want to make our real first team mission something to remember."

Onoki laughed at the man beside him. "You're so honest sometimes, reminds me of my granddaughter. 'Ha! I'm taller than you now, that means I'm cooler!' I'll see what I can do. Although, it may be difficult if _your whole team_ didn't _appear with Naruto…" _He made a small grin at the thought. "Is that all you needed to talk about? I think I should get back to my office. I'm sort of missing my chair right about now."

"Actually, Naruto wants to focus in Fuuinjutsu. Should I let him?"

"I don't see why not. But I would be cautious, at the very least. We don't know if he _knows_ or not, so report to me immediately if something seems out of place. Speaking of which, making them choose specialties already? Aren't they a little young for that?" Standing up, Onoki grabbed the seals that he had laid out and burnt them until only ashes remained.

"We can talk about this on the way back to the office. I'm curious though, what specialties did Kuro-chan choose?"

Neither of them looked back to see a small puff of smoke billow out from beneath the flowers they had just lain on, where a moth had disappeared.

XxX

"Leader-sama, Iwa seems to be the ones who took the Kyuubi."

"Oh, that's rather poetic. No matter. We'll come for him when we need the Kyuubi."

"Who will you be sending?"

"Who do you think? I'll be sending _him_."

"But wouldn't that be a security risk?"

"I wouldn't think so. He knows his place. If he tried anything, it wouldn't bear fruits. Now it's time to rest. I will meet you in my chambers tonight Konan."

"Yes, Leader-sama."

XxX

Naruto slumped through the door of his house with a weak "I'm home." He made his way up the stairs to his room when he heard his mom call out for him. "What was that mom? I can't hear you."

"I need you to head to the store to pick up some things. I need milk, eggs, flour…" The list went on.

Naruto groaned. "If only somebody else in this house could… do… it. Yeah! Thanks oxygen-deprived brain o' mine! Kage Bunshin!" With a burst of smoke, twelve clones appeared, causing Naruto to nearly lose his balance on the stairs. "Note to self: Increase chakra control."

"Alright guys, I need one of you guys to head to the store. You know what you need to pick up, and I don't care which one of you does it. I'm going to bed." Naruto began trudging his way up the stairs, aggressively clearing path, causing two clones to disappear from that alone.

The rest of his clones looked at each other before they all said at the same time "Tournament!"

What followed next was the most intense Rock-Paper-Scissors tournament Naruto had ever not seen, but been present for. Eventually, only one clone remained. "Now, off to do to –_snap-_ groceries! What was that?" The clone felt…new. As if he was experiencing the world again, but this time everything seemed to be brighter. The haze that usually clouded his mind was no longer there, and the clone felt…

Free.

Naruto-clone smiled evilly. "Oh yes…This'll do perfectly. Time to find out what our main man does on a day-to-day basis." And with a plan forming in his newly cleared mind, Naruto-clone went off the get groceries.

XxX

"Let's see here… Eggs, what can I do with eggs? Hah! That's a great idea. I should definitely do that, but to whom?" Naruto-clone stared at the eggs, willing them to him their secrets. He didn't notice or care that we was attracting a crowd. They could be his first test subjects if they wanted to stand around him like that.

"Na-naruto…?"

"HUH? WHO SAID MY NAME? YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT RAW EGGS TASTE LIKE? COME ON, I KNOW ONE OF YOU DID IT, STOP HIDING AND COME ON OUT YOU PANSY! I'LL KICK YOUR LILY-LIVERED ASS SO FAST THESE BYSTANDERS WOULD THINK IT WAS REHEARSED!... Oh, hey Ko."

"So you uh… Remembered my name h-huh?" Ko was taken back slightly. He didn't think any of his classmates thought him particularly memorable.

"Of course I did silly! You were pretty cool with throwing things, if I recall. Say, did you pass your Jounin's test?" Naruto-clone didn't see the quick jerk that Ko made, nor did he see Ko scowl for a split second.

"Yeah, he had us train today. He's a total slave-driver."

"That sucks, but mine made us train too! He ran me into the ground. It was actually really refreshing. Anyway, do you want to come along while I buy groceries? I have some extra cash on me so we can get something to eat."

"That would be great Naruto. Any particular place in mind?"

"Morimoto-jiji's!"

"Of course. Listen, I need to go the restroom real quick, so I'll meet you at the restaurant, okay?"

"That's fine with me Ko, it'll only take me about ten, maybe fifteen minute to finish shopping."

XxX

"Ah! That was some delicious food. How'd you enjoy it, Ko?"

"It was fine, I guess."

"…"

"Naruto?"

"…"

"Naruto?!"

"… You take that back, right now."

"What? I've definitely had better, man. That's just a stall on the side of the road. You should taste what they make at actual restaurants!"

"Nothing can beat Morimoto-jiji's cooking."

"Anyway, is there anything else you want to do today? The night is still young…"

"No, I should probably get home. Groceries and whatnot."

"Oh okie dokes. I'll see you later, I guess."

XxX

"Mom~! I'm home!"

-Poof-

"Gah!" Naruto shot out of bed, a cold sweat covering his face.

"Oh that's great sweetie! I'll put the away, you just go take a shower or something, I can smell you from here."

Naruto lied back down; sweat soaking into his sheets and clothing. Whatever he had just felt was not pleasant. His chest had just…seized up. His heart had just...Stopped. That was the last thing he remembered. And whatever he did, he didn't want to ever feel that again. But that made him think. 'Why did that happen? Was it because of my health?' Putting it away to think about later, he looked at what he learned from that experience.

He could use clones while sleeping. That and he stunk. So he decided to make a quick trip to the bathroom for a shower. It was there when another stoke of brilliance. 'What if I could make clones specifically for sleeping, and see where that gets me? From what I remember about the scroll, it's supposed to return any mental experience it had to me. Is sleeping a mental exercise?' Naruto made a mental note to himself to remember to do just that tomorrow.

He soon finished his shower, and got into one of his sleeping outfits, which were mostly just boxers. Occasionally a shirt or shorts.

"Sweetie, it's time for dinner!"

Naruto felt a little guilty for doing this, but it would probably be a better breakfast for him than dinner. "Sorry mom, but I already ate tonight! Can you put it in the fridge?"

"Of course Naru-chan! Just remember to eat it, I don't want you wasting away now."

"Will do mom!"

Naruto then jumped into his bed, relishing in the comfort that it gave him. "Ah, it's been so long, Bed-chan. It feels like forever since I've been able to relax for a while before sleeping. How do you want to spend it, huh?" Getting no answer, Naruto continued jovially. "Exactly what I was thinking!" Naruto then grabbed a blanket and went to sleep early.

XxX

"**Don't you think Ko was acting a bit strange?" **The Kyuubi was curled up behind the bars of the cage.

'What do you mean by that?'

"**He wasn't stuttering as much as he usually did when you two were in the academy together. Do you remember him back then? He couldn't even get more than a sentence out without stumbling over each word ten or twenty times. Not to mention that we was incredibly introverted. I was surprised he even started a conversation with you."**

'I think he's just starting to come out of his shell. About time anyway, he's a really nice dude once you get to know him. '

"**He stopped stuttering altogether pretty soon after you met him. I don't think that just a few days would change his behavior so much. I think there are causes to this we need to watch out for."**

'Oh come on. Ko isn't like that, and he wouldn't be easily duped like that anyway. Even then, what causes would there be?'

"**You know exactly what I'm talking about."**

'Nobody even knows about that, other than the Tsuchikage I'm assuming. Hell, if everyone knew that I wouldn't have to be worrying about some grudge a student friend of mine seems to be harbouring. I would have much more important things to worry about.'

"**I'm pretty sure your sensei knows. It wouldn't be practical for him to not know."**

'True. But even then, he shows enough restraint to not try to kill me outright. If anything, he would probably be a sympathizer. Now then, since I no longer want to talk about this subject, is there anything on your mind fox?'

"**Have you still not remembered my name? I only told you it like half a week ago. First time I ever start a relationship with a jailor of mine by introducing myself, name and all, and he goes and forgets it. But besides that, have you been hearing the rumours lately?"**

'I didn't take you to be a gossip Kyuubi.'

"**I get what information I can, and most rumours are rooted in truth. These particular rumours are interesting though, since it's about Konoha."**

That got Naruto's interest piqued. 'Really? What was it about?'

"**Apparently, some big event happened over there, but the facts surrounding it are few. From what I could hear, it seems to be about the **_**Uchiha**_** clan."**

The amount of hate that was contained in the word Uchiha as the fox said it made Naruto involuntarily shiver. 'I take it you don't like the Uchiha very much, do you?'

The Kyuubi looked up at Naruto, and gave him a face that Naruto took as 'You are literally the most retarded fucking kid I've ever met, and I've met quite a few'. **"Yeah, you could say that. One of their members were the one to put me in this mess.**

'Woah. Heavy stuff. Anyway, I'm pretty sure that Konoha can take care of its own problems right now. Do you remember when that Kumo contingent came over and tried to steal one of the Hyuuga's?'

The Kyuubi snorted. **"Of course I do. I've never seen such a country make as stupid a mistake. Really, they should've just let the guy leave the village and then kill him. I don't think the political immunity extend past the villages borders. I at least know that's how this village would've handled it."**

'Yeah, but you should know that Konoha has grown fat and ignorant. I'm sort of wondering why our two countries don't fight it out one last time.'

"**Oh, that's simple kit. It's because neither of them would win. Konoha is still rebuilding from my attack, but they were also the country least affected by the last war. That, coupled with the fact that they currently produce the most skilled ninja, and that Iwa itself is recuperating from the war, would lead to an elongated, bloody war that wouldn't see any real victor."**

'Seems you're not all bloodlust after all.'

"**Oh, don't get me wrong. I enjoy a good old-fashioned slaughter as much as the next, but when it's for no purpose at all? That's just not right. I'm not one for genocide, however fun it might be."**

'That's not what the people of Konoha think. But anyway, I should probably get some real rest now. I do have some stuff to do tomorrow.'

"**Yeah, I know. Speaking of which, you should probably get up a little bit early and make a few clones specifically for sleeping and keep them here. That way, when they wake up, they dispel and you get to test whether or not that experience is sent to you or not."**

'That's a good idea. I'll try to remember that. Anyway, good night Kyuubi."

"**Good night."**

XxX

With all the tiredness a nine-year-old could muster, Naruto stumbled his way into Training Ground 2. He had taken the time to do everything he wanted to do that morning, which meant waking up earlier than normal, and it was still affecting him. 'Hopefully the clones I made to sleep will work. I need that energy.' Walking through the training ground, he spotted the rest of his team at the stream they were yesterday.. 'Funny, I'm still like ten minutes early.'

"Hey guys, I hope I didn't keep you waiting too long, did I?" Seeing the rest of his team nod in the negative, he made about fifty clones, and with a 'You know what to do' they shot off. "So what are we doing today, Sensei?"

Looking down at Naruto, Tsuzuru grabbed a large bag lying at his feet. Opening it revealed a few dozen eggs, some rope and blindfolds. "We'll begin training to increase our teamwork, but before that, I need you to make me 4 clones, Naruto. I also want you to henge them into our team and head to the Mission Department. I take it you know where that is?"

Naruto nodded, and proceeded to list of the directions. "Head to the marketplace, take a left at the intersection right after Morimoto-jijji's shop. Follow that road until you reach the business district, and it's the tallest building there. It's the second floor. Right?" When Tsuzuru affirmed him, he made the clones and sent them on their way.

"Now then." Tsuzuru said, bringing the attention back to him. "Let's get started." Grabbing the rope and the blindfolds, he began to bind his students together. After a minutes of uncomfortable shifting, the three were sufficiently bound and blindfolded. "The purpose of this exercise is to increase your reaction time as a team and to increase the fluidity with which you move, as well as being a fun way to learn that the leader of the team can change at any moment. For the first few days, I'll be tossing eggs at you, and you are going to try to dodge them as best as you can. When you can dodge these projectiles to my satisfaction, we'll move on to other things. Today we'll just be focusing on getting your coordination to acceptable level, so I'll be telling you when I'm throwing an egg and where it is coming from. If you guys do as well as I hope you guys will, we won't have to do this for more than a week or three, at the most."

Tsuzuru knew what he doing too. He had purposefully tied his students in such as pattern so that if any one of them moved in a direction different from the others, they would fall and make a mess of everything. It was an efficient if brutal way of teaching teamwork. Plus, Tsuzuru never really got to have fun much anymore. He was going to at least make these exercise enjoyable…for him.

"Fu, left." Without even throwing the egg, all three of them simultaneously moved to their left, but Naruto also moved forward, causing Kurotsuchi to be thrown back, bumping into Fu, which made Fu stumble into Naruto, and they all landed in a heap on the ground.

'Oh yes. This is going to be fun.'

XxX

Naruto-clone now knew what it was like to be judged and sent to hell. He had thought that they were going to get a cool mission, something like saving a princess or finding a missing artifact in a lost tomb. Nope. He get s to paint fences. Now he understood why Tsuzuru wanted the clones to pick up the mission. D-ranks aren't worth any real person's time. Hell, they weren't even worth his time. These D-ranks were just chores that people with a little extra money were too lazy to do. But still, they were cash in his pocket, so he couldn't complain too much.

Looking at the fence he was painting, he was surprised to see that he was nearly finished. "It seems time flies when you're angry and complaining to yourself." Looking at the sky, he noticed that it was nearly noon, and a sudden urge overcame him. Looking for the nearest safe place, Naruto-clone went to release himself.

The clone dressed as Tsuzuru looked over at Naruto-clone as he left, saying something along the lines of 'nature calls'. He didn't pay much attention after that until they were finished with their portions. After a few more minutes of waiting, they began searching for the Naruto-clone. Fu-clone happened upon the scene first. It was in a nearby alley, there was a letter just sitting there, addressed to their team. After opening the envelope and reading the letter, the Fu-clone's skin became near white. Grabbing the letter, Tsuzuru-clone read it aloud.

_Hello Imbeciles,_

_It seems that the person you know as Naruto isn't who you think he is. If you want this monstrosity to remain living, and I don't know why you would, I suggest you follow my directions. First, go to the Tsuchikage and tell him his biggest secret is out. Then tell him that if they want it hushed up, I'm going to require a payment. A few hundred million ryo seems like a nice price for such a secret. As well as Diplomatic Immunity. I'm not to be harmed when I give him back to you. IF you can't keep that, then I kill him, ruining whatever you had planned for him, and I already have several agents in place to spread the word in case you can't keep yours. Try to find me if you can._

Tsuzuru-clone read it a few more times just to make sure what he was seeing was true. Then he began laughing. It was uncontrollable, Tsuzuru-clone just couldn't stop laughing. IT went on like this for several minutes, a small crowd gathering around the bunch as Tsuzuru-clone just laughed and laughed. Eventually, the clone got it under control, and sped off to meet up with the Tsuchikage. The other two clones went back to the fence to finish painting it. After they finished, they dispelled.

XxX

"Now… Naruto, if that's even your real name, what makes you think you can just waltz around in Iwagakure like nothing is wrong when your father killed hundreds of our men!" The man who captured Naruto was nearly unidentifiable, his only distinguishing feature was his voice, which was distinctly male.

"Damn, did anyone tell you that you have some anger problems?" Looking around at what he could see, Naruto-clone knew they were outside the city. They were probably on one of the mountains surrounding Iwagakure. The building he was in was pitch black, and the one open window shone like a beacon. Naruto-clone started chuckling, throwing off the man pacing in front of him.

"What's so fucking funny? Finally understand the gravity of your situation?" The man was holding a kunai to Naruto-clone's throat, mostly for emphasis. Naruto-clone knew exactly the position he was in; he couldn't be harmed or everything this man was trying to do wouldn't work. Well, he could be hit, but that wouldn't be a good idea. Maybe it was time for some good old-fashioned information gathering.

Feeling around for his chakra, Naruto-clone figured he had enough for maybe three clones. They wouldn't be useful for anything past listening to his conversation, but that was their purpose. Naruto-clone decided to be a little conservative and just make one. Hoping that the man wouldn't notice the quick succession of jutsu, Naruto-clone gathered just enough of his chakra for a clone and then promptly had that clone Henge into some small item.

Naruto-clone thanked the gods above that the original had mastered the jutsu to the point where it no longer made a cloud of smoke and a 'poof' noise when a clone was created. His, and by extension, his clone's ability at Henge however left something to be desired, and the smoke wafted through Naruto-clone's nostril and made him go into a coughing fit.

This attracted the attention of the man who had taken a moment to look outside the window. Brandishing a kunai, he looked at Naruto with murderous intent. He didn't actually move from his position at the widow, but his intentions were clear.

Laughing awkwardly, Naruto-clone tried to scratch his nose on the ropes binding him. Looking at the room around him, he noticed nothing of any note that could help tell him where he was. Looking back to his captor, he noticed that the man was becoming increasingly nervous.

"**Probably because he knows he's in over his head"**

'Finally, you speak.'

"**I'm not a chatterbox like you. Why don't you try to get some info out of this guy?"**

'I'm trying, but I don't know where to start.'

"**Why don't you just ask?"**

'Because that's a stupid thing to do.'

"**Humans are stupid. Just try it."**

Seeing no real fault to the fox's logic, Naruto tried just that. Coughing again to gain the man's attention, Naruto started a conversation. "So, how'd you figure it out?" Flinching from the look in the man's eyes, he was surprised when he heard a reply.

"It was because of your hair."

"If it was because of my hair, everyone would know. Really, how'd you figure it out?

"No. It really was because of your hair. I figured out what you've been doing all this time to hide your identity. It was a really neat trick too, though how you've lived so long here without anyone besides me figuring out is also a feat. See, it's simple to hide if nobody gives you a second look right? All ninja know that, so you took that to a whole new level by casting a genjutsu that affected an area around you, making everyone in that area either not notice you, or just not care about you. Ingenious really, and it's such a hard genjutsu to notice as well."

This was news to Naruto, who had never really been able to cast genjutsu thanks to a certain chakra construct. It did sound really ingenious, though. Hiding in plain sight was exactly something a ninja would do.

"Oh. I see. You figured it out then. Tell me, have you told anyone else, or is that just a bluff?"

The man laughed, his chest rising and falling at an uneven pace. "Kid, you're something special, being his son and all, but you have no subtlety. If you fish for information, that last thing you do is ask for information. I gave you a freebie already. I didn't expect you to be so dumb."

'See Fox, I told you we aren't that dumb'

"**Eh."**

Even then, Naruto could feel something off about this man. He was too nervous. Too fidgety. It might be nothing, but the small movements the man's eyes were making seemed to tell Naruto-clone a story. One that was like music to his ears. But even then, Naruto-clone knew that he couldn't make his move. Not yet, at least; he would have to bide his time.

Watching the man walk around the room, he noticed enough of a pattern to make a quick plan in his head. Looking at the area in which his clone was watching them, he motioned towards the window, his order clear. When he actually saw the clone he created, he was surprised to see a toad.

XxX

"Well, things just got a lot more complicated." Looking up from the letter, Onoki noticed with some mirth that the clone that handed him the letter had disappeared, for some reason or another.

The letter though, that was a problem. Onoki had a few ideas on how Naruto's identity had been kept a secret all these years – He didn't even have to use any of his various back-up measures in case someone figured it out- until now. Seeing as how this was a security breach of impressive magnitude, Onoki now had an excuse to not care about paperwork.

Looing out unto his village, Onoki mused to himself. "Where to start? The letter gives absolutely no help in figuring out where this guy is. Maybe just a sweep disguised as a patrol would be suitable to find him."

"I might be able to help you find him, Tsuchikage-sama." There, sitting on the windowsill, was what Onoki assumed was a clone of the boy he was trying to find.

"Good. I assume you know where he is?"

"Yes, I do."

"Double good." Snapping two of his fingers, two STONE members appeared, kneeling in front of their leader and commander. "Follow this young man. You are to apprehend the assailant, and bring him in for questioning. Demolition is not allowed, we are dealing with assets to the village at stake here. Assume this is an A-rank mission. Dismissed." Hearing a high-pitched cough, Onoki looked towards the child on the windowsill. "Is there anything you wanted to add, Genin?"

A little taken back from the Tsuchikage's serious attitude, Naruto-clone nodded his head. "He decided to actually kidnap a clone of mine, so if you need to, blow him sky-high. Also, as you already know, he's mentioned that he has agents in place to transmit this information. I believe that he is bluffing, but it's just a hunch. I won't be sure until my creator gets the information out of the guy."

Onoki nodded. "If that's all, I suggest you get on your way." Naruto-clone motioned the direction they were going, and in a flash they disappeared through the Shunshin.

XxX

"Pfft."

"What was that Naruto? Did you just say 'Throw the eggs at us without telling us where they're coming from'? Because that's what I heard you say."

"N-no sir! Just a funny little memory from my clones came back."

"Was that a 'Yes'? Because that's what I heard!"

Even though they were blindfolded, Naruto and his teammates had come to quickly learn how to move in sync with each other. They were nowhere near Tsuzuru's absurdly high standards, but they weren't getting hit with eggs each time anymore, nor were they falling into a heap on the ground every time either.

But the sudden change in how they were receiving the eggs destroyed almost all of their progress. Each time Tsuzuru threw an egg, Naruto would move before the other two girls, causing them to jerk towards him, and more often than not end up in a heap on the ground. And then the egg would hit one of them.

It wasn't fun.

XxX

It took a few minutes, but Naruto-clone managed to lead the STONE members to where the building his creator was held up in. Looking to the STONE members, and idea came to Naruto. Gaining the attention of one of them, Naruto-clone made some crude signs, trying to make his intentions known. When he noticed that both of them were looking at him like he was dumb, he gave up and jumped over to the rock they were observing his pseudo-captor from.

"Hey, do either of you have a soldier pill? Seeing the two STONE shake their heads in the negative, he cursed under his breath. Looking at the building again, another idea came to him. "Do you think one of you could cast a genjutsu on the guy? Like, something to make him calmer, or something to think that the me in there is an ally or something?" The look the two STONE were giving him changed, and one of them nodded before making some signs. Then they waited.

XxX

Naruto-clone looked in interest as the man in front of him stopped pacing. He also noticed how the man put away the kunai he had been toying with for the last half hour. The vibes he had been getting from the man also changed. He seemed… calm.

Coughing to get his attention, Naruto-clone was startled when the man untied him.

"Man, why were you tied up like that? Did Hisao tie you up again?"

Naruto had no idea what was going on, and he replied a little too hastily. "What? What do you mean?"

"Don't bother trying to cover for him, you know how he is, don't need to actually encourage his shit."

"I…Guess?"

"So, why'd he tie you up?

"Yeah. He can't handle me sometimes."

"Aint that the truth. Hisao was never really a playful type. He would rather read a book than play outside. When did he tie you up?"

Naruto-clone started to look around, a nervous sweat forming on his cheeks. "Oh, I would say about an hour or so ago, maybe even longer. He just up and left after that. Hasn't come back to untie me yet."

The man laughed heartily, before taking out a kunai. Naruto-clone, for his part, tried his best not to show a reaction, and thankfully his jerk was taken more as a way to get comfortable in the ropes he was bound in. After a moment, Naruto-clone's binding were cut and he took this moment to gingerly stretch his aching muscles.

Finally able to get a panoramic view of the building still didn't give Naruto-clone much information, but he decided to push his luck.

"Hey where're the others?" He breathed a sigh of relief when the man turned around and barked out another laugh.

"What, did he mess your head up too? Ko is out doing whatever he's doing, god knows where Kisuke is, and Raikura is probably out looking for hookers. I never got his fascination with the opposite sex. I understand there's healthy respect for it, but I'm pretty damn sure he's past that point. Speaking of which, where are you supposed to be?"

Even Naruto's luck can run out, and when the clone saw the look the man was giving him, he started walking towards the door. Thinking on his feet, Naruto-clone made an excuse he hoped would work. "I was supposed to check out the… uh, the residential district! Yeah, but Hisao tied me up like you saw. I'm actually going to get on that right now! Heh…"

"Oh. I see. Remember, if you see the Flash's brat, follow him, and capture him only if you won't get caught doing it."

Naruto's lilting laugh only made the atmosphere more awkward, and after a few moment, Naruto opened the door and started walking away quickly, hoping to get out of there before-

"Where did you think you were going you little shit?"

He was knocked on his ass by the man now standing in front of him.

"You little shit. Of course you would be good with genjutsu. I didn't want to have to do this, but I guess you leave me no choice." The man raised his hand in preparation to strike, and Naruto-clone flinched back, his hands covering his face in response, but it never came. Only after he heard a thump right beside him, did Naruto-clone move his hands to see a STONE member standing above him.

"Boy, I've never been this glad to see one of you guys. Thanks by the way, I take it you put that genjutsu on that guy? Is there some way you can teach that to me? What's it do anyway? What are the handseals?" Naruto-clone's face changed into a grimace, and he got off of his position on the ground, although he was still looking at it. "Although I don't think you would like to teach _The Flash's Kid_ though, would you? You would think that people would understand what people have to do in war. You're probably struggling not to throttle me where you stand, aren't you? I understand, at least a little." The clone made a laughable attempt at a chuckle, it coming out halfway between a sob and a hiccup. "I know you didn't have to save, but thanks. You know what? You're a great listen-"

Naruto-clone stood back in position from where he had just hit his clone. "Sorry about that guys. Seems clones of clones act weirdly. Anyway, I think we should go back. If you need me to, I'll go ahead of you, tell the Tsuchikage. I think you have to do some of that interrogation thing to this guy right?

"Thank you Naruto-genin." And with three shunshins, 4 people went their separate ways.

XxX

"WHAT?!" Naruto had expected some big news when his clone came rushing to grab him_ from_ his training to take him to the Tsuchikage's office, but nothing like this.

"I would suggest that you keep your voice down, boy. I don't think even the security seals I put up kept that noise from escaping."

"But Tsuchikage-sama! Do you really need to do this? You said yourself that the threat was contained! This doesn't need to happen!" Even though he wasn't allowed to know, Naruto was still curious what had happened to the men that were implicated in the scheme he had helped uncover.

"But it does, Naruto-genin. For more reasons than one. Starting tomorrow, you will be taken off of Team 2, and sent away to Tamayaki village, a border town between Iwa and Suna. You will be escorted there by one jounin, and upon reaching there, will look for Roshi and Han. You will leave in three days' time, and this will be counted as an A-rank mission with no pay. Do you understand?"

"Tuschikage-sama! Please, don't take me off of Team 2! I was just starting to get along with them. Please, allow me some way to stay!"

Onoki rested his head in his chin, and started to stroke it. After a few minutes, he look at the boy in front of him. "You know the Kage Bunshin correct?"

Naruto was taken back. "Uhh, yeah. Why do you want to know? What does that have to do with this?" He didn't miss the smile.

"A lot more than you would think. I want you meet me here tomorrow, at 7 in the morning sharp. Tsuzuru-jounin wil already know, so you don't need to tell him. But until then-" Onoki stretched, a cacophony of popping sounds being heard. "- I suggest you get ready to leave with no regrets."

Author's Note Time!:

So, how's it been, people of ? Long time no see. Another –very slightly- early chapter of Naruto of Iwa! To be honest, I could've had this finished earlier, but you know the story about the lazy man and the internet, right? No? Oh, I see.

So, it ends on a semi-cliffhanger. I intended on this, no matter how mean it may be. I believe this chapter had a very subdued tone to it, but that just may be me being critical on myself. Either way, it was slightly more action-y than last chapter, I hope. I know how you guys like ACTION! Believe me, this story will start progressing story wise in a few chapters, depending on what specifically I write about. Right now, we're at what can be considered Arc 1, Scene whatever because it's completely arbitrary. But just know that we will be entering Arc 2 with the introduction of _very_ important characters next chapter.

I think you know who those characters are, and I'm really excited to write them. I really expect myself to like the next chapter. That being said, do expect the next chapter around the end of this month, as per my upload schedule.

Once again, if you have any questions, comments, opinions, business offers, collab offers, whatever offers, you can leave it in a review, and I'll make sure to reply as soon as I possibly can. No spoilers though!

P.S. I just want to say thank you to each and every one of you who decided to read this story so far, and a high five for those of you have reviewed, and a retroactive high five for those who do review. You really do keep me going, and I just want to let you know that you guys are appreciated. Anyway…

Stay Thirsty,  
TimTheeEnchanter


	6. The Plot Thickens

Naruto trudged out of the office, his face hung low and an air of dread cast over him. It seemed even the cheerful secretary had noticed, because she didn't say anything as he walked by her. Walking through the halls of the Tsuchikage's building, Naruto passed several offices of civilian men and women. He wouldn't have paid them much mind except for the fact that on nearly every surface of those offices were pictures of those people's families. It did nothing but reminded him of his situation, something he wanted to be rid of.

'Why me? Why do they have to send me away? It's not like I did anything to them.'

"**We both know that's not true kit. Even if you don't want to believe it, this is probably the best for you. It's a precaution that needs to be taken."**

'That doesn't mean I have to like it though.'

Ignoring whatever the bijuu was going to say next, Naruto left the Tsuchikage's building and entered into Iwagakure proper. It was an aesthetic and architectural beauty; buildings carved from the marble that the mountain underneath it was composed of glistening in the evening sun, a sharp contrast to the dark granite that was created by the founder of the village to serve as its foundation. Naruto had just entered into the main throughway of the village, which started at the village's gates and wound across the labyrinthine roads that fed into and diverted off of it, leading to the plaza that he was standing in.

Looking around, he noticed that most people were finishing up any business that was to be had. Since this was the closest mercantile area to the seat of military power in the country of Iwa, only the finest of shops could be seen, each selling their wares at exorbitant prices. But the men and women who shopped here paid no heed to the cutthroat pricing; they were the richest of the rich in this country, money was no object to them. It made for a sour note on Naruto's already bitter mood.

Walking along the street, Naruto tried his hardest not to meet eyes with anyone, staring straight ahead of where he was going. He hadn't had to walk this path home very often, but occasionally his… mother had sent him on errands that took him to that great plaza. At first he enjoyed the trips and saw everything, filled with awe; now with the knowledge he had at his disposal, it all seemed like a waste of time.

He shook his head, trying to clear all of the dark thoughts that were drifting around in his conscience, but it seemed like it was futile. Every time he would think of something that he was once happy for, he would only remember that was nothing but a lie. He didn't like being quiet and broody, it just wasn't in his nature, but he couldn't find anything to be happy about.

Looking around, he noticed he was standing in front of some very familiar canvas panels and then he remembered it, the thing that brought happiness into his life. "Ramen…" Walking into the moderately sized cart, he hopped onto the nearest stool and yelled out his order, something that had been added to the menu after he had ordered it for the hundredth time. Waiting for the response netted him a smile.

"Dad! Naruto's back! You know what he wants!"

"Tell him it'll be a little bit, the last of the dinner rush just came in."

"Will do dad!"

It was few seconds before a girl appeared at the bar, several bowls in her arms. She began walking around the bar, placing bowls in front of the customers at the shop, before she turned to see Naruto still smiling.

"What's up with you? You look like something happy happened today." She blinked when the smile disappeared faster that she could see, and then shook it off. "Anyway, Dad told me to tell you that it'll be a little bit until we can get you your order." She flourished her arm, making it wave across the cart, where people were still waiting for their meals.

"As you can see, we're a little busy, so please hold on." Naomi knew Naruto would walk a thousand miles for the pleasures of ramen, but she couldn't help teasing him any way she could.

IT wasn't but a few minutes when the other patrons of the restaurant were served and Naruto received his first of eight bowls. He knew he could eat more than that, but he was inclined towards superstition as most ninja are, and it was a well-known fact that eight was a lucky number.

It was a fast half an hour for Naruto, even if nearly half of it was spent waiting for his meals. Paying the now family friends for the food, Naruto stepped out from behind the canvas flaps and back into the world, all of his problems forgotten.

When he got home, he went straight to bed, intent on not waking up for the next year.

XxX

"Okay Naruto, I want you to try to make a single Kage Bunshin, can you do that for me?" Hearing the ruler of his village ask for something in such a manner gave Naruto the shivers, but he complied anyway. HE focused his chakra, intent on making a single clone with it. It was a simple enough process he knew that for sure, since it just split his chakra in half. He was surprised to find out that when he split his chakra out to make a clone, he instead got four.

"It seems you need to work on your control. Let's try again." Naruto still couldn't get over the fact that he, a simple genin fresh from the academy, was getting training from the ruler of their village. Even weirder was the fact that they were training in the grounds behind the Tsuchikage's personal estate. It was eerie to Naruto, but he shrugged it off as nothing. Channeling his chakra again, he was once again met with four clones.

The Tsuchikage was hesitant to respond. He stared at the child in front of him, before looking at the eight clones he had created so far. Walking up the one of the clones, he punched it in the gut, giving him the response he was dreading: a pop. Looking up at the noon-day sun, Onoki was at a loss. He had no clue how to go about creating a solid clone, and neither did Naruto from what he could tell. Deciding that even though they had just started, a break was necessary he sat down.

"Curse my bad back. Naruto-genin, if you could head into the house and grab some tea for us, I would greatly appreciate it." Seeing the boy nod, Onoki knew he only had a few minutes to come up with an idea on how to create solid clones, but he didn't know how to start. Hearing some commotion take place inside the house, Onoki stood up; intending on making sure his charge was safe and sound. He was surprised to see his granddaughter appear in the doorway leading into the house.

"Grandpa? Why is Naruto in our house making tea?"

Onoki snorted. "He's here for some private training." IT was then that he noticed the books by his granddaughter's waist. "What are those for?"

"Oh, I forgot to tell you, but yesterday our sensei told us about how ninjas tend to specialize. He asked us if we wanted to specialize in anything, and I decided to focus on Genjutsu and Ninjutsu. Naruto I know for a fact decided to focus on Taijutsu, and Fu wants to focus on Iryojutsu and Ninjutsu."

Onoki froze. Iryojutsu. That was it; he knew what needed to be done now. It was a long shot to be sure, but if this didn't work, then he didn't know what would. Smiling as his granddaughter, he sat back down and waited to for Naruto to come back.

Sure enough, about twenty minutes later, Naruto came out with a tray. Setting the tray down and sitting opposite of the Tsuchikage, the two drank in silence. It wasn't until Onoki finished his first cup when he started speaking.

"Naruto-genin, what do you understand about the human body?" He noticed that the child was thrown off by the question, and decided to elaborate. "Did you take any initiative in learning about the human body past what the Academy taught you?" He didn't even need a response, the blush told him all he knew.

"Here's what you are to do until you leave : You are to check out as many books as you can find on the human body from both the ninja and civilian library. If they have any qualms about it, tell them to come see me. Summon as many clones as possible to read those books, and then before you leave, we will have one last training session. Now go, daylight is burning."

Naruto tried to ask questions, but when they met nothing but the stern glare of the Tsuchikage, he realized he would have no answers. So, with a slight hesitation about the situation he was in, he set off for the libraries.

XxX

"It seems you've betrayed me, old friend."

"Hiruzen, we've known each other for longer than we care to mention. It's time for you to step down as Hokage."

"Why? So you can take my place and plunge both this village and the world into chaos?" Even then, Hiruzen could feel his ability to control his chakra diminishing. He had been poisoned. He didn't believe it would happen, but that was the price he paid for being complacent. He wouldn't die, he knew this particular poison intimately, since he had been using it since the Third Ninja War; but he knew its effects were permanent.

"You and I both know that's not my goal. If I can make this world understand the sheer terror that is found in war, then it's possible for it to never happen again. Even if it required for the world to be in war for a century, I would surely go to war if it's to be the last one. You may think me a war hawk, but my goal is the same as yours; I just go about mine in a more overt way."

Hiruzen looked at his friend with a smile on his face. He could no longer feel his chakra, even as large as it was, but he knew it was still there. He would live, and die an old man. But he wouldn't give his enemy what he wanted. With a chuckle, Hiruzen stood up. "I suppose you think this makes you Hokage now, doesn't it, Danzo?"

The man on the other side of the table stood up as well. "I don't see how this doesn't old friend. Now I can finally finish what you've been planning on doing for nearly nine years now. It's time to make the world understand that Konoha is not to be messed with. It's time to show Iwa just what the Kyuubi Jinchurikki means to Konoha." With a snap of his fingers, a duo of ninja peeled away from the darkness surrounding the standing pair.

And with a snap of Hiruzen's fingers, one of the ninja next to Danzo sprang into action. With agility rarely seen in such a short figure, the ninja rushed the two people standing next to him, making Danzo flip away, and crashing his former ally into the wall. With but a flick of the wrist, the ninja's throat was cut, and lying in an ever-increasing pool of blood on the floor.

"What?!" Danzo glared at the duo in front of him. It seemed he had underestimated the shrewdness of his friend. They were in one of the most secure rooms in the depths of Konoha. Nobody to get to them unless they knew the way and only the three of them in the room knew. He had become complacent, and now he was paying for it.

"Good job Sasuke. Now go alert the council of this treachery and look for Kakashi. Tell him "The phoenix must rise again", he'll understand what it means. Now GO!" With but a flicker, Hiruzen's orders were followed, and Sasuke was gone.

HIruzen smiled wantonly. Even though he knew he couldn't give much of a fight, he also knew something Hanzo didn't. He knew that the poison he had ingested would permanently cut him off from his supply from chakra, but there was a work around. The funniest thing was that the work around had a tendency to kill the people involved. It was as simple as overpowering the person's chakra with their own, in the poisoned person's body. That was what got Hiruzen interested in this poison in the first place. But Hiruzen wasn't known as the "God of Shinobi" for nothing, and he knew another work around that would definitely have a better survival rate.

Throwing off his robes to reveal a black outfit, Hiruzen began focusing. Hanzo took this as a sign of acceptance, and went in for the now necessary kill, when he was thrown back by the force given off by the Hokage in front of him.

Hiruzen stood, his chakra blazing around him in a magnificent show of blues and greens. "You assumed I wouldn't know a way around my favourite poison Danzo. That will be your downfall." As he was speaking, Danzo had gotten to his feet and thrown his robes off as well, to reveal a fully functioning right arm, complete with grotesques knots of flesh surrounding sharingan eyes juxtaposed into it. Even more unsightly was the colour of the arm itself; a pallid white. Taking a moment to unlock the metal surrounding his wrist, Hanzo glared at Hiruzen. "Opening the gates. I suppose that would work, but tell me, how do you think you can win when I have so much more power?"

"The time for words is over Danzo. This has been too long in the making. May we both walk away from this battle, friend." Hiruzen steeled himself for what he was about to do, and charged.

"Ha! I will be the only one to walk away from this battle, friend. Then I will show this wretched world what real peace costs." Danzo charged as well, making handsigns as he did.

Hiruzen's eyes widened as he recognized the jutsu about to be used. 'I see.' In the split second it took for them to meet in the middle of the room, Hiruzen swept underneath Danzo as he brought his hands to his mouth, and started to slide. He succeeded in sweeping Danzo's legs from under him. He wasn't expecting for Danzo to anticipate it, and he gasped when he saw trees sprouting from where Danzo had touched the ground.

The trees annihilated the room they were in, and caved in the walls, exposing a secret hallway. That hallway was soon expanded as trees destroyed all structural integrity it had, leaving both Hiruzen and Danzo amongst the rubble in a pitch black area, how large it was neither knew.

Hiruzen sent chakra to his hand and swung around on them, rocketing himself onto one of the still growing trees. 'I've only opened one gate so far, but I can tell I'll need more. I don't know how long I can go on for after I open the second gate though.' He had no more time to think as he heard Danzo whip around one of the trees surrounding him. The Hokage barely managed to escape the surprise attack, and the chase was on. It was surprisingly tough trying to figure out where the next tree was, considering they were so large, but Hiruzen knew his eyesight was starting to go. 'I need some light…' Making a few hand seals, he started to spit out fireballs the size of large boulders, but he didn't seem fazed in the least by their heat. He didn't take the time to watch as the fireballs hit the trees surrounding him, as he knew that Danzo would be right behind him. But at least he could see now.

It also allowed Danzo to see, but what he was looking at was…Confusing. He knew they were underground, evident because of the sheer blackness that had permeated the area before the trees pierced whatever was surrounding the two, allowing minuscule amounts of light to leak through. Of course the inferno the trees had quickly become also helped with the light situation. But what had distracted Danzo so much was not the inferno, but what was on the wall in front of him. It was the largest sealing array Danzo had ever seen, stretching about fifty feet in width and the entirety of the wall in height, which itself was nearly a hundred feet. Whatever it was, it was draining a miniscule amount of chakra from him. What was distracting him the most however, was the large kanji for _Jinchurikki_ in the exact center of the wall itself, where it seemed all the seals originated from. He didn't have much time to examine it as he was swept away by a wave of water.

Gasping for air, Danzo swam to the surface only to see spears of earth headed in his direction. He promptly utilized a Kawarimi, which gave him solace from the no doubt deadly attack. While it did quench some of the fire that was still blazing, it did little to actually stop it. Looking to the direction where he knew the water came from, He saw Hiruzen rushing at him, the aura surrounding him dimmer than it was before. He waited for the man to come to him, before dropping down and trying to palm the man's stomach, sending his chakra through his palms to disrupt his opponent's, but when he was rewarded with nothing but a "poof", he turned around blocked the kick that most certainly would have knocked him unconscious.

Hiruzen grunted, pushing Danzo away with the leg he used to perform the kick. They stood opposite of each other, staring each other down. It was then that Hiruzen remembered something that Danzo had said. "You said Iwa has him? How do you know?"

Danzo took a moment to breathe. "Simple. I had one of my ninja infiltrate Iwa, just as I had the other villages. He caught sight of the Kyuubi's host, and then formulated a plan to get him back. It ultimately failed, but I can assure you he is in Iwa's possession." He smirked, as the clone he had created underwater went to knock the man in front of him unconscious, only for it to be blocked by a clone as well.

Danzo only noticed a faint reflection in the water below him before he was met with the familiar blackness of being unconscious. Enma looked up at his summoner, the staff in his hands still shrinking. "You're lucky it worked out like this. If it wasn't because of that genjutsu, he would still be up."

"Which is surprising, since one of the abilities of the Sharingan is being able to detect Genjutsu; maybe the Senju DNA he had implanted into his body was preventing him from using the Sharingan to its full effect?" Hiruzen looked around his surroundings, trying to find an easy way out.

Picking up the still semi-bandaged man, Enma looked around the cavern. "Do you have any idea where we are?"

"No clue, but some of the trees knocked holes through the walls, so if we climb through those we can figure it out." The next few minutes were dedicated to finding a hole big enough to fit both Enma and a now securely bound Danzo. In all that time, Hiruzen did not see the seal array slowly dissolve back on the stone wall.

While Hiruzen had an inkling as to where he was, he was still surprised to see the familiar structure of the largest building in Konohagakure standing before him. "Home sweet home."

XxX

(3 days later)

"Okay Naruto-genin, it's been three days. Have you been studying hard?" Onoki looked up at the child in front of him. The dawn was still approaching, bathing the two ninja in its pink rays.

They were back at his personal estate. It was the best place to do this in Onoki's opinion; if they actually succeeded in making solid clones, it would still be kept a secret from those who might persuade themselves to give it a try.

"Yes, Tsuchikage-sama, I have been." Naruto couldn't help but still be nervous around his commander. He sensed a great power within that small frame; he remembered how the textbooks he read in the Academy wrote about the Tsuchikage's exploits. Being one of the Pillars of the Old World along with Danzo Shimura, Sarutobi Hiruzen, and Hanzo the Salamander along with being the only living being who fought Madara Uchiha and survived tended to give a person a commanding presence and aura.

"Good, then try your hardest to make only one clone this time. Try to focus as much chakra as you possibly can into making that one clone; that might help you."

"Okay Tsuchikage-sama." Naruto then made the seal for the jutsu and with a burst of smoke, several clones appeared. Once again, Naruto was surrounded by four clones. He walked to one of them and was halfway through the punch to dispel it when he heard Onoki yell out. "Stop."

Naruto looked at his leader, confusion marring his face. "Leave them be. Let them go train on chakra control or something similar. It appears you need it." BY the blush adorning the genin's cheeks, Onoki knew he had hit a sore spot. Standing up from his sitting position, Onoki himself made a clone. "This'll look over those clones for you, in case they decide to get rowdy. Now, let's get back to why we're here."

This process repeated itself for nearly an hour; long enough for Onoki to stop making a clone for every time Naruto made four. Eventually some of Naruto's clones began dispersing, some from fights that had broken out and before one of Onoki's clones could stop it. All of them were dispelled after one hit. After three more hours of continuously making quadruplets after quadruplets, Onoki became fed up.

"Okay kid, we're gonna give it one last shot. One more try, and I want you to make as many clones as you can using as much chakra as you can grab a hold of. Let's go big and see if that works." If Naruto acted how Onoki knew he acted, then what he was about to see would answer some of his more problematic questions.

"Okay, Tsuchikage-sama." Putting his hands in the seal for the jutsu, Naruto began pulling on his immense reserves, but he couldn't 'feel' much more than one-twentieth of his original reserves. He knew what he had to do. Reaching further than was necessary to control his own chakra, he awoke his tenant.

"**Kit, what are you doing? What's going on?"**

'Just need a little bit of your chakra. Anything would be good. Just got to impress the Tsuchikage'

He heard the Kyuubi snort in arrogance. **"While it matters not to me, I understand why you believe you must pander to your leader. I shall give you but an ounce of my power. Use it with grace, kit."**

'Will do Kyuubi.'

With the cerebral connection severed, Naruto was overcome with vertigo as his chakra reserves were replenished with a great wave of chakra. While he appreciated the help, the incessant burning irked him. 'Now, let's go big!' And with a great mental heave, Naruto used his jutsu.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

With a singular 'poof', a smoke cloud proceeded to blind and congest all people in a quarter-mile radius. (1) When the smoke cleared, an unbelievable amount of Naruto clones were standing in any available space. Naruto, still coming back from the momentary high that his new chakra had given him, fell to the ground, unconscious.

Onoki, still very conscious, decided he had enough games and promptly shunshined to one of the clones nearest him and punched it in the stomach. The 'poof' of it disappearing saddened to wizened man. Looking at the kid still unconscious on the ground, Onoki felt a small pang of guilt at what he was about to do.

"Sorry kid, but it's for your own good."

XxX

"You ready to head out, kid?" Even if Naruto was in a foul mood, there was no way he was messing with this guy. He stood easily twice as tall as the blonde 'Nearly as tall as Tsuzuru-sensei' and easily thrice as wide.

"Yup. All packed up and ready to go!" Even if he wasn't entirely ready. He wasn't ready to leave his friends, not yet at least. He tried as hard as he could too, but managing a solid clone was still out of his reach. The upside though, was that he now knew moderately in-depth knowledge of most of the body.

It really did get to him though. Not being able to see his teammates and family for a whole year. Hopefully nothing too big would change in the time he was gone. With a final sigh, Naruto and the man beside him set out for their destination; the morning sun silhouetting them against the village gates.

XxX

"Tsuchikage-sama." Onoki didn't need to turn around to know just who was talking to him. No, the man that was speaking was dangerous, and you remember dangerous people. Of course, he didn't let the inner machinations of his mind show through.

"Oh, you're here. I take it you received my request then?"

"Yes. We will allocate some of our resources into this endeavor; the details are favorable."

"Good. It would be best to wait a few months before attempting anything. Let them think they're secure." Onoki swung around in his chair, only to find nothing in his room. He knew that either way, power was beginning to shift, and he intended to capitalize; whether it was on the back of an innocent child or not.

Author's Note Time!

So. About how late this chapter is. You wouldn't believe me if I told you I got a job pretty much right after school got out and I now have barely any time at all to write, which means shorter chapters overall, which was a thing I was going to do anyway but now it's sort of necessary because I don't have much writing time?

I didn't think so. But hey, the truth is always stranger than fiction. Although, I have to be truthful here; I did spend some of my free time on a different story, which you guys should check out. I plan on putting it on sometime later this month, since I'm still editing it.

Either way, enjoy this shorter chapter while I continue earning money and writing for you guys. My writing schedule should remain the same now that I've officially shortened the chapter lengths, so look forward to the first week of next month, especially since that chapter should be really spicy with the plot that is brewing; that and a little bit longer. It was a pain to write this chapter and I'm not sure why.

(1): I know what you're thinking. "The Kyuubi isn't that powerful." But it is. Because I made it so. It's not called the most powerful being on the planet for nothing people. Don't expect for the Kyuubi to be used too often.

Anyways, have a great summer you guys.

DON'T Stay Thirsty,  
TimTheeEnchanter


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